Overnight
by Feral Phoenix
Summary: A drabble series concerning a very epic sleepover at Sora's house, and all the chaos and mayhem that comes with it. Same universe as Finding Mr. Right, various pairings include RxS, AxR, XxM, TxY, LxCxSxA etc.
1. First Arrivals

Overnight

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. This drabble collection was, in fact, inspired by a very short drabble done by the wonderful Miss Uzumaki-sama, authoress of the highly infamous Stygian Solace (among other things). And now that I've made sure that credit goes where credit is due, I must clarify that the rest of this thing (including a few of the more crack pairings) is entirely mine. Run away now if you don't want to be scarred for life, yaoi haters.

WARNINGS: Some sexual discussion in this chapter and later ones. Also, there will be many yaoi pairings (and one yaoi foursome), from the orthodox to the "Where in the world did THAT come from?" ones. If you cannot tolerate, do not read and especially do not flame. Seriously. Save me the hassle of siccing my muses on you and save yourself the pain and torment they will inflict. They're just creative that way, believe me.

"I'll be leaving you all around nine-thirty," Sora's mom repeated as she unloaded the groceries. "I know you can all make any food you want after that, and if anything bad happens, I know there'll be people responsible enough to take care of it. I have a lot of faith in you kids—just don't destroy the house, alright?"

"Yes, mom," Sora replied, shoving a stack of milk cartons into the refrigerator.

"Oh, and Sora—no matter what Riku tells you, I don't want you raping him all night, okay? You have other guests, and besides, I'm sure he'd like to be on top for a while, too. You keep an eye on him, Kairi."

Kairi giggled; Sora groaned. His mother liked to tease him about Riku like that, and it was usually funny, but in front of his friends, it got embarrassing… even in front of the girl who'd been his best friend ever since Sora's family had moved into the neighborhood when the two were only a few years old, and knew the details of his sex life as well as Sora himself did. _Especially _in front of her.

It was slightly past noon, and Kairi had recently come over to help Sora set up for one of his infamous sleepovers. They were always massive, as Sora usually ended up inviting not just his own friends, but their friends and their _friends' _friends as well. Over thirty people would be attending this time, male and female, of various ages. Luckily, Sora's parents didn't mind—they simply went out somewhere after removing the house's alcohol just in case. The girls would sleep upstairs while the guys took the basement, so there was plenty of room.

Sora had scheduled each group of his guests to come at different times so it wouldn't get too overwhelming. Still, even with the best of plans, thirty-three people was an awful lot—hence his asking certain guests to come over early and help.

Sora's mom was going over her list with Kairi. "Video games?"

Kairi pointed to the two consoles—a GameCube and a PS2—by the TV. "Check," she replied.

"Movie?"

Kairi wiggled the box of their Pirates of the Caribbean DVD. "Check."

"Popcorn and other munchies?"

"Check." Kairi paused. "Ansem's bringing the ice cream, though."

"Music?"

"Entertainment system downstairs, CDs in their cases, mics on stands, and karaoke machine," Kairi listed. "Check, check, check, and check."

"Condoms?"

"MOM!" Sora wailed.

"In the bathroom, under the sink, along with all the maxi pads," Kairi replied. "Check."

"We just want you to be safe in case something happens, sweetie," Sora's mother told him, patting his spiky brown hair and smiling.

"But, still…" Sora grumbled, red-faced.

The doorbell rang.

Leaving Kairi and his mother still going over the checklist, Sora went to answer it.

Two pairs of eyes peeked through the windows at him—one was deep cobalt and kept flicking down at some distraction, and the other was intense and demanding turquoise.

Sora opened the door and smiled. "Hi, Riku! You brought Namine along, too?"

Riku looked six inches down at his boyfriend—he'd just gone through yet another growth spurt—and shrugged. "She called and said she needed a ride. I drove us both." Tall, silver-haired, just a little bit built, and often too inquisitive for his own good, Riku had known Sora since kindergarten and had been his official boyfriend since they were in sixth and fifth grade respectively. Aside from Kairi, Riku was Sora's best friend, and for most of their young lives the three of them had done almost everything together.

Namine herself nodded, too busy drawing to concur with words. She was almost at the end of her tenth sketchbook of the year; Sora was willing to bet that she would finish it up tonight. Namine was _always _drawing. That, in fact, was how she'd met Sora; ever since middle school, she'd been in the same art class as Kairi and Riku and they'd introduced her to him. It hadn't taken long for her to be officially adopted into the fold.

"Well, don't just stand out there—come on in," Sora insisted, backing up so that they could. "Mom and Kairi are finishing up double-checking everything in the kitchen."

"I'll help," Namine volunteered softly, slipping her pencil through the spirals of her sketchbook and sweeping her platinum-blonde hair out of her face as she went.

"Okay, Riku, let's—" Sora started, but paused when his boyfriend pointed down the drive and snorted with a derisive look on his face.

"Don't look now, it's the statutory-rape-mobile," he announced under his breath. Sora sighed and shook his head, wishing that Riku was more willing to get along with Roxas' (admittedly somewhat strange… okay, _very _strange) nineteen-year-old boyfriend.

But then again, Axel sure did have a gift for getting off on the wrong foot with people and staying there.

He was pulling up in his flashy reworked car now, parking behind Riku's pre-owned silver Toyota on the street. One of the members of the highly infamous Organization XIII gang, he had a stubbornly happy attitude, an enthusiasm for combustibles, and a somewhat alarming disregard for personal space. And what was definitely one of the better dye jobs of Sora's friends. Even now, thinking of the awful bleach job Tidus had done on his dark strawberry-blonde hair in the seventh grade made Sora cringe; Axel's transition from black to red looked a lot better even when the roots started showing through.

Roxas emerged from the car before Axel did. He was Sora's cousin, and aside from the different colors of their hair (Roxas' was blonde, shorter, and stiffer by far), they looked remarkably alike. They also had similarly amiable personalities, although Roxas was somewhat more sensitive than Sora and didn't forgive as easily. Quicker to be hurt but also to anger, he'd actually gotten into quite a few fist fights at school over the past year, and if he hadn't had Axel's Organization comrades and his own small gang, the Usual Spot, around to back him up, Sora would've lost a lot more sleep worrying over him.

"Hi, guys," Sora called as Axel and Roxas chased each other up the walk.

"What's with the frowny face?" Axel demanded of Riku, the picture of mischievous cheer. "Smile! Or I shall poke you with the Finger of Doom!"

Riku looked as though any of Axel's fingers that got too close to him would be promptly bitten off.

"Er… right…" Roxas shook his head at Axel, grinning. They'd been going out for almost seven months, which was definitely a record for Roxas (who usually had a great deal of trouble keeping romantic relationships going due to his sensitivity), and Sora thought he'd never seen his cousin so happy. "Well, we brought CD mixes and a few games. Hope that's okay."

"It's _great," _Sora said warmly. "We all love Axel's mixes." As silly as Axel sometimes seemed, he could also be very thoughtful, and he and his gang's guitarist, another nineteen-year-old named Demyx who would be arriving later on, were into the habit of burning CDs for their friends. Axel's taste in music varied, and a mix usually included an even balance of throbbing techno, thrashing punk, the hottest pop, the coolest alternative and rock, and some quirky 80's disco. A few of Demyx's own songs, with their frantic guitar solos, were usually included as well. Hence, the mixes were essential to any party that involved dancing.

Kairi poked her head around the corner of the kitchen partition and squealed in delight. "Axel! You finally got here!"

Axel turned from the sullen-looking Riku and flashed Kairi a bright grin. "Hey, Princess!" As opposed to Sora's _boyfriend, _Sora's _best friend _had hit it off with Axel just fine. Kairi had a natural gift for getting along with _everyone._

"You have to make Chex Mix with us tonight, okay?"

"Sure, sure." In addition to his CD mixes, Axel's other legendary attribute was his Chex Mix, which he was always able to make perfectly. Aside from that, he sucked at cooking, but to Kairi (and almost everyone else who attended Sora's parties) that was good enough for them.

Kairi giggled and ducked back into the kitchen.

Axel turned to Roxas. "Hey… I think we should do a test run of some of the tracks on the blue disc before the others get here. The stereo was sounding a little weird the last time Demyx beta'd it."

"Which ones?" Riku asked. "I'll go put it in now and see."

"I'll go too," Roxas volunteered. "I know what they're supposed to sound like. Just let me put the rest of this stuff away first." He dashed off to take care of his precious games.

"That's 2, 5, and 9, okay?" Axel told Riku. "2, 5, and 9—got it memorized?"

Riku groaned and rolled his eyes in Sora's direction, obviously looking for sympathy. By now, everyone—even Roxas—was a little bit sick of Axel's catchphrase. _"Yes, _Axel, I have it memorized. Don't spaz out on us." Taking the disc in question, he headed off into the hall that led to the basement stairs, shaking his head.

"Touchy, touchy," Axel commented, then turned to Sora. "So. What's going on?"

Sora shrugged. "No one else is coming until Leon gets here with Cloud and Seph at one-thirty," he said. "C'mon, let's get the Tostitos and salsa and I'll play you at WipeOut—Mom and the girls have got it covered in the kitchen."

"Fine by me." Axel grinned. "Better be ready to get your ass whooped."

"That's if you can manage not to _crash _in the first five minutes," Sora taunted. Laughing and shoving at each other, the two of them headed into the family room to set up the PS2.

---

NEXT TIME: In the chauvinistic world of video games, things tend to be more than a bit male-dominated. However, Kairi has more than a few tricks up her sleeve.

Drabble No. 2: "Champion's Crown"


	2. Champion's Crown

Overnight

See disclaimer in Drabble #1

Sora, Riku, Axel, and Roxas sat jammed together on the old couch in front of the TV, each gripping a black game controller in sweaty hands and staring at the TV in sharp, almost paranoid focus.

The announcer screamed something, but none of the boys were paying attention. The fight had been going for several minutes now, and almost all of the combatants were down to one life. Sora, as The Legend of Zelda's Link, tried to climb to the top of part of the battleground, but was knocked off the side and off the screen by Roxas, who was playing as Marth from Fire Emblem.

"Agh!" Sora groaned as he heard his character yell and his status display at the bottom of the screen went black. "Crap!"

"Got youuuu," Roxas sang, but all too soon, as Riku—the other half of Sora's tag team—made his way up the same climb and deftly threw Marth off the same precipice. He turned Roy, also from Fire Emblem, around in order to face off with Axel, who was lurking on the other side of the screen as Ganondorf. Alone out of the group, Axel still had two lives left. Riku would have to be careful if he stood any chance at dethroning the likely winner of the battle.

"Stupid fuck," Roxas informed Riku, shoving at his shoulder with only mild annoyance.

"The stupid fuck was just protecting his boyfriend's honor," Axel reasoned as he moved Ganondorf over towards Roy, who was braced for some kind of attack. "Can you blame him? I'm about to do the same thing for you…"

Roxas shrugged. "If you say so."

"Back, fiend!" Riku yelled, unleashing the fury of Roy's sword on Ganondorf, who stood and took it. His damage meter crawled into the red zone, indicating that he was in danger of losing his second life in the round of combat.

But while Roy was recovering from his attack, Axel grinned amiably and had Ganondorf sock him in the face, shoving him off the side of the screen.

Riku swore, grinning, as the announcer declared the round and the screen switched to the image of Ganondorf striking a victorious pose and then to the bonuses.

Roxas pointed to the screen, laughing. "Hey, Sora—you got it again. Master of Disaster for the past six fights! That's gotta be some kind of record."

Sora stood up and bowed, sitting down amid playful boos and shoves from the others.

Axel was examining Riku's list as he went through his own. "Hey, look—we both got Crowd Favorite. Not too bad, considering you picked someone who is quite light and easy to throw around."

"The only reason I couldn't kick you off the platform before was because you're playing as an 80-ton bruiser who can't jump if his life depends on it," Riku replied, completely without malice, leaning over to flick Axel in the head.

Kairi wandered in from the kitchen, wearing a curious expression. "Whatcha doin'?" she wanted to know.

"Playing Super Smash Bros. Melee," Roxas informed her, pointing at the screen.

"Way to go, Mr. Obvious," Sora cheered.

"Who won?"

Axel raised a hand. "As if I don't always," he bragged.

"Shut up," the other three chorused. Axel gave them a cheeky grin and a raspberry.

"When one of you is done, can I play?"

Riku, Roxas, and Axel looked at her with upraised eyebrows, but Sora shrugged and held out his controller to her. "Here. You can have mine—I'm just about done anyway; these nasty guys won't stop beating me up. I'll go help Mom and Namine in the kitchen for you."

"Thanks!" Kairi took the controller—and Sora's seat—as he headed off.

The boys sat there for a while, exchanging glances, before Riku finally flipped them to the battle setup screen and disbanded the tag teams. "It'll be more balanced this way," he said awkwardly.

Kairi moved Sora's token from Link to Zelda as the three boys shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"You know how to play, right, Kairi?" Roxas asked at last.

The auburn-haired girl shrugged. "More or less."

"Okay. Do you want us to reset the handicap on Zelda for you… or change it so you'll have more lives?"

"No, three is fine. I want it to be fair," Kairi told them, nonplussed.

Roxas shrugged. "Your choice, I guess… we won't go too hard on you. It's not really nice to beat up girls…"

Uncomfortable silence ensued as Riku picked the world to battle in and started the fight. The announcer yelled "MELEE!" cheerfully and the screen switched over to the fight itself.

None of the boys noticed the evil-looking smirk that spread across Kairi's face.

As soon as the countdown ceased, the helpless-looking princess Kairi had control over poofed into her alter ego, Sheik, and dashed straight over to Roxas' Marth, attacking him in a flurry of kicks and punches. In a matter of minutes, his damage counter totaled, and Marth vanished from the screen.

Roxas made a startled sound. Riku and Axel stopped duking it out with their characters and gaped.

As soon as Marth reappeared above the battleground, Kairi had Sheik jump up to him, deftly throwing him towards the only bottomless gap in the terrain. Marth yelled again, and the second of Roxas' lives flicked off the counter.

This time, when Marth reappeared, Roxas desperately used the best counters he knew, but nothing could match Sheik's finesse and technique. Marth vanished from the screen altogether; his status symbol at the bottom of the screen went entirely blank.

Roxas' shock was so total that he didn't even seem to understand what had just happened. Riku and Axel, too, had trouble doing anything other than gaping, but when Kairi moved Sheik their way, they forced themselves into action.

Roy attacked in the same flurry of swords with which he had hoped to defeat Ganondorf earlier, but it did less good against Sheik, who jumped nimbly out of the way at Kairi's direction, poofed back into Zelda, and cast a blistering fire spell on him before poofing into Sheik again and taking him out with nimble body blows. Riku didn't even stand a chance.

As for Axel's Ganondorf… the heavy fighter didn't stand any kind of chance against Sheik at all, as the smaller, quicker fighter could run rings around him and none of his devastating attacks could manage to land a hit. In what seemed like no time at all, Ganondorf went down too. The match went to Sheik.

Kairi punched the air, letting out an exultant "YES!"

As she sorted through the bonuses she'd got, the boys stared at the screen, barely comprehending how badly they'd been chewed up and spat out. Kairi hadn't even lost a single life.

"I can't believe this…" Roxas managed in a little voice.

"It's not _possible," _Riku said flatly.

"Whoa." Axel didn't even bother looking for bonuses on his part of the screen. "Who would've guessed that Kairi was an SSBM _god?"_

Sora, who had reentered the room along with Namine towards the end of the fight, looked at his friends. "You mean you didn't know?"

"Didn't know _what?" _Riku asked him.

"This is Kairi's GameCube. All the games we've been playing on here are hers. It's her Memory Card, too. She's cleared SSBM at a hundred percent, which is why she's been lending it to us for all these sleepovers we do."

There was a long, stunned silence.

"No wonder she trounced us with a frilly little princess," Roxas said after a while.

Kairi burst into insanely giddy giggles.

Sora turned to Namine. "Do you want to try, too?"

The blonde girl smiled and shook her head. "No… I don't like playing video games." She was working on another drawing, shading it with the flat side of her pencil. "I just like watching other people play them."

Sora looked over her shoulder. For the past few minutes she'd been working on a perfect still of Sheik dealing a devastating blow to Marth. It was subtitled, "The Downfall of Chauvinism".

The brown-haired boy glanced back at his stupefied friends and Kairi's giggle fit and smiled.

---

NEXT: Leon and the rest of his crew show up, along with Tidus' posse and the Usual Spot kids. Groups do their own thing, and get into other people's business. The house gets really crowded… and really busy. Hehehe.

Drabble No. 3: Pandemonium


	3. Pandemonium

Overnight

See disclaimer in Drabble #1

Leon showed up right on time.

Sora and the others had literally just finished lunch; Riku was helping his mother with the dishes and Kairi, Namine, and Axel were all still thanking Sora's dad profusely for the finely barbecued hot dogs when Sora heard the sound of a car pulling up and headed over to the door to see who it was.

Pulling open the screen, Sora watched with a grin as the silver-streaked black Scion parked perfectly across the street from Riku and Axel's cars. Of course Leon wouldn't be able to help driving up in his brand-new flashy car; though displays like this one tended to exasperate him, Cloud had managed to wreck his rust-red pickup, and there wouldn't be anything else for them to use.

Although Leon, Cloud, and their friends were quite a bit older than Sora's group, they had gotten to know each other nonetheless, befriending each other over the long years they'd lived in the same neighborhood. Although Leon and the others had all moved out to live within range of their respective colleges, Sora and the younger kids of the block still saw them quite often and were glad to.

Leon and the others unloaded; Sora nodded when Sephiroth stepped gracefully down from the van's side door, as the silver-haired man roomed (at least, that was what they called it) with Leon and Cloud and generally went where they did, but frowned a little when black-haired Tifa, a childhood friend of Cloud's, followed him. Tifa and the girls of Cloud's group weren't expected until later, but maybe something had happened so that they had to come along with the guys. It wasn't like Sora couldn't deal with it.

"Who's here?" Sora turned; it was Axel. Seeing the Scion outside, Axel stuck his head out of the door and started to wave. "Oei! Squeon! Glad you finally got here, you lazy bum, you!"

Even from so far away, Sora could see Leon rolling his eyes and had to laugh.

Leon's full name was Squall Leon Lionheart, and he didn't particularly care to be called by anything but plain and simple 'Leon'. However, Axel, always looking to provoke, had hit upon combining Leon's first and middle names and simply _would not _stop, even for all Leon's annoyance. Maybe Leon wasn't that annoyed after all and understood, as he didn't protest or even _make _Axel stop, which was easily within his power.

"Hey, Sora," Cloud said with a hand upraised as he, Leon, and their entourage headed in. Sora nodded and smiled. In addition to Tifa and Sephiroth, they'd brought along Aerith and Yuffie—typical. The six of them had been the much-beloved terror of the neighborhood before any of the more-or-less placid gangs, such as Organization XIII and the Usual Spot, had cropped up. Leon was dark-haired and dark-eyed, generally somewhat taciturn but not above paying attention to the masses every now and then, and his boyfriend of roughly two and a half years, Cloud, had blonde hair even spikier than Sora's and a nature so accepting that as a teenager, he'd let his female friends coax him into crossdressing in order to attract Leon and Sephiroth's attention without any fuss at all.

Sephiroth was tall, given to dressing all in blacks and navy blues, with beautiful silver hair and a handsome long face. He was quiet but not antisocial, bookish without seeming awkward, and graceful beyond belief. Before Cloud had hooked up with Leon, the two of them had dated on and off, and now they were collectively seen as a threesome, an image that Sephiroth either ignored or promoted based on his mood. Sora knew quite well that he wasn't above sleeping with Cloud, Leon, or both at once if he felt like it. Around his friends, he showed a much warmer side of himself that his cool outer image would lead others to believe couldn't possibly exist. In Sora's household, he answered to "Seph" just as readily as his full name, laughed at and scorned the lower masses, and prodded Leon to give up the Mr. Untouchable appearance and join everyone else in having fun.

Aerith, with her beautiful chestnut hair and green eyes, and Tifa, black-haired, brown-eyed, and elegant in a charcoal dress of soft fabric, were the sweet charity cases of the group, though Tifa was a little less sweet than Aerith… while the former worked as a florist and always brought Sora's mother quietly elegant bouquets when she stayed the night, the latter was a volunteer worker at the martial arts institute she'd graduated from, helping the smallest children learn karate with endless patience and stunning them with her own substantial skills.

Yuffie, the youngest, was definitely the oddball of the group and loved it. Her family was descended from one of Japan's oldest ninja clans, and she was very proud of that fact—so proud that she sometimes misused the skills she was heir to in various silly displays to entertain her friends. Always friendly and usually hyperactive, she made sure that Sora and her younger friends knew that she wasn't above chasing them around and beating them at their own games.

"I hope you already had lunch," Sora told them. "We just had it and I don't think Dad really feels like making any more… sorry, though…"

"We ate before we came," Tifa assured him. "We know you're going to have to feed everyone all night, and we didn't really feel like burdening you any more."

Sora flashed her a grateful grin as the others came in from the kitchen to say hello. Within a matter of moments, the girls had taken up residence in the living room and were chattering animatedly amongst themselves, while Riku, Sora, Axel, and Roxas herded Leon, Cloud, and Sephiroth into the family room to play and backseat-play video games.

SSBM had been taken out after Kairi had trounced the boys' tag team for ten solid rounds as Zelda, Princess Peach, Pikachu, Kirby, Jigglypuff, and all other things remotely pink and cutesy within the game's available selection of characters. Sora had switched it back to his PS2, and until lunch, the boys had taken turns playing WipeOut. The second Twisted Metal game was in now, and Riku drew up a quick tournament chart for the seven of them to play through.

After being creamed a few times by Sephiroth, Sora rose to answer the next call of the doorbell.

"Tidus!" And not just him, either, but Wakka, Selphie, and Roxas' Usual Spot friends—Hayner, Pence, and Olette, as well. Apparently, they'd been driven by Tidus' pushy dad in his parents' soccer-mom-styled minivan. Pausing in greeting his and Roxas' friends to wave at Jecht (who was much, much, _much _nicer than he liked to let people believe), Sora stepped back to allow them all inside.

"Kaiiiiiriiiiiii!" Selphie called as she bounced in, her jump rope over one arm.

Kairi walked into the room, squealed, and ran forward to hug her old friend, exchanging one with Olette as well. "Selphie! Olette! Hi! What's going on?"

As both girls began to talk about a shopping spree they'd dragged their guy friends on, showing Kairi the products of their exploits, Sora turned back to the others. Tidus had a muddy soccer ball under one arm—obviously a blitzball substitute—as did Wakka; Roxas had ambled in while Kairi was talking to the girls and was greeting Hayner and Pence, who seemed to be discussing something new on Pence's laptop. Pence was always the first kid that the others went to when they needed to fudge their homework; however, Pence usually just checked the papers and gave advice rather than letting people copy. _Usually. _Evidently, Roxas had something on him, because he'd managed to get out of making up quite a bit of work that he'd missed while ditching class to hang out with Axel by shoving it onto his friend. All in all, Sora preferred to try to wheedle answers out of Riku, who'd aced all the same classes he was taking now last year. It was easier, and a lot more fun.

"So what's up?" Sora asked his friends with a grin.

Tidus rolled his eyes appreciatively, grinning back. "Dad's already getting in training for blitzball season," he told Sora. "It's totally nuts at our house—as usual."

Sora laughed. Tidus might complain, but he actually had it pretty good—he and his father shared an obsession with blitzball that overrode even the nastiest of their arguments. Jecht was a professional blitzball player whose team almost always made the finals; he spent much of his time making sure that his son would follow a similar road, and to everyone but Tidus, it was pretty clear that his father was really very proud of him. Jecht just didn't know how to show it.

"Crazy," Wakka commented—on Tidus' household or Tidus himself, Sora couldn't be sure. "I just got a letter from Lulu. Her family's flying out here soon." He grinned. "I can't wait."

For the past several years, Wakka had lived in Jamaica, buckling down to a study of blitzball with his brother and friends in the island locales where the game had originally been made. While there, he'd not only picked up the musical accent of the locals but a feisty girlfriend that none of his other friends had met yet. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, and Selphie were all pretty curious about Lulu and had been waiting for the chance to meet her ever since Wakka had come back.

"Sounds cool," Sora told him. "Hey, wanna go out back and play while we're waiting for the others? Just let me go get Riku—I think he'll be happy to have a break from the guys in the game room."

Tidus went "ah" and nodded. "Tired of getting whooped by the Sephinator, huh?"

Sora snorted. "You could say so. Although, since we started playing Darkstalkers, Roxas has even been whooping _him. _I wonder sometimes how that kid spends his time when he's not with us or with Axel." He turned around to where Kairi, Selphie, and Olette had joined Namine, Tifa, Aerith, and Yuffie in the living room in order to gossip. "Hey, Kairi—while we're out back, you've got door duty, alright?"

"Okay," she called back. "I've got it—just go have fun, Sora! Don't let Riku kick you around too badly."

"Between you and my mom, I'm really starting to wonder who's the bitch in this relationship," Sora muttered as he headed off to collect his boyfriend. Tidus and Wakka both laughed, trailing behind him and teasing him all the way.

---

Sora and the boys had only been out for about fifteen minutes when the doorbell rang yet again.

"I thought he was supposed to be _staggering _these?" Kairi wondered aloud. "Everyone's showing up on top of each other, even so." Brushing off the skirt of her new dress, she headed off to get it.

A cluster of three girls was standing on the step. It took a few moments for Kairi to recognize them, as they were a few years younger than her, but eventually it clicked.

"Oh!—Yuna, K.K., and Paine, right?" Kairi made a face at herself. "How are things? C'mon in."

"I hope we're not too early," Yuna murmured, blushing and twisting her lace-frilled skirt in her hands. "I mean… we thought it'd take longer to walk here than it did…"

"That's fine," Kairi lied, wishing that Sora was better at scheduling. She really liked Yuna and her friends, and thought that one day they'd make a great pop band—Yuna had a really pretty voice, Rikku—known collectively as K.K. to avoid confusion with the older, male Riku—was so similarly hyperactive to Yuffie that Kairi could just picture her going absolutely insane on a set of drums, and Paine acted moody and sullen enough to be the perfect guitarist. "Tidus just got here too. He's out back with some of the other guys."

Predictably, Yuna squeaked, went red, and dashed off to the back door. Giggling, Rikku chased her; Paine rolled her eyes and followed at her own leisurely pace.

Kairi grinned, hummed the first few bars of "Stupid Cupid", and mimed shooting a bow and arrow to the howls of laughter from most of the girls, and sat back down to discuss exactly which eyeliner Yuffie had used on Cloud during the infamous crossdressing incident several years ago.

The girls had progressed from Cloud's makeup to the number of runs he'd managed to put in his tights when the sound of loud, angry bickering reached Kairi's ears.

"I have a feeling I know who _that _is," she commented and got up again, trailing sympathetic stares.

Getting the door open before the next group of guests could even manage to ring the doorbell, Kairi nodded to herself. As she'd expected, the sight that greeted her was the two leaders of Organization XIII, arguing with each other about something that sounded very stupid to her. Dark-skinned, white-haired Xemnas was gesturing angrily as he spoke in clipped, bitter tones, while Marluxia ran a hand through his wine-red hair and protested the accusations vehemently. Although irritated, the two of them were standing a little too closely to each other for Kairi to think that the argument was really going to hurt either of them. Both had notoriously thick skins, and besides, as hot and bothered as they looked, she decided that they were probably enjoying this more than either would like to admit.

Backing out of their way, Kairi watched Xemnas and Marluxia head inside and towards the game room without interrupting their argument even once. Turning back towards the door, she noticed that Larxene, the only girl in the Organization, was also walking in, gritting her teeth and taking out her earphones, shutting off her mp3 player after Kairi heard the momentary hiss of furious punk-metal chords.

"They were like that the whole way, huh?" Kairi said sympathetically, making a face and shaking her head. "I feel for you, Larx… I really do."

Larxene let out a long, aggravated sigh and planted her hands on her hips, glaring down the hall at Xemnas and Marluxia's retreating backsides. "I kept thinking that maybe the two of them would just shut _up _for a few minutes and give me some time to _breathe, _but _noooo…"_

The two girls stood in silence for a few moments, until Kairi broke into a grin and elbowed Larxene gently in the side. "I give them about three hours until they can't stand it anymore and jump each other," she said in conspiratorial tones.

Larx broke out giggling. "Three _hours? _I don't think they're gonna make three _minutes _at this going rate!"

Feeling slightly lazy, Kairi picked up a sheet of computer paper from Sora's dad's workroom, pulled out a pink highlighter, and wrote a short note on it, taping it to the front of the door and stepping back to admire her handiwork.

_"If you're here for the sleepover, let yourself in. If you aren't, go away. We have lots of heavy and pointy objects just in case. Love, Kairi."_

"Having to keep getting up for the door is _annoying," _she protested when Selphie teased her about it. "Next time, _you _can be on door duty instead of me."

But Selphie didn't want to either, and there weren't any unwanted guests showing up. Instead, the rest of the Organization's members made their way in over a few hours, taking up residence at a few tables that had been shoved together in the dining room to talk (and so that Luxord could coax the others into playing poker, Kairi bet).

It was about 4:30 when Kairi heard someone knocking during a pause in the conversation, and turned to the door with a frown. "It's open," she called.

"I know, but I need some help with this," a familiar voice replied, muffled by the door.

Instantly, she leapt up with a squeal, ran over, and tore the door open, letting out a happy shriek as she saw the last of the guests. "Ansem!"

As opposed to everyone else in attendance, Ansem was actually an adult in his late twenties, but he'd been let into the circle under very special circumstances—and besides, almost everyone knew him anyway and didn't mind having him hanging around. He was a friend of Kairi's parents, had been her science tutor when she was a child, and before everything had happened, he'd been in the habit of taking Sora's inner circle out for ice cream every now and then.

Currently a chemist and biologist with several master's degrees in various types of science, Ansem worked with an important group of laboratory scientists who were on the verge of a breakthrough about something Kairi had never quite paid attention to. About eight months ago, however, there had been a horrible accident in one of the laboratories—a big chemical fire triggered by an explosion. Ansem had been caught in that explosion, and he'd been badly burned, leaving traces of dark scars from the fire and the broken glass all over his face and hands. He'd also lost the beautiful long hair that Kairi, Sora, and several others had always admired—it had started to grow back, of course, but it wasn't even to Ansem's shoulders yet and it would be a while before it looked like it had before.

To Kairi, though, that didn't matter; Ansem was one of the sweetest adults she'd ever known. He never talked down to kids her age, and was always very patient with people who didn't share his personal interests. She and her friends knew very well that he had a thing for Leon, and that occasionally they hooked up but tried to keep it separate from anything else so that it wouldn't hurt others. People told her that she had a gift for making friends everywhere she went, but it was nothing compared to Ansem. Everyone respected him, even his irritable cousin Xemnas, leader of the Organization. And Kairi completely adored him.

"We have to get this inside so the ice cream won't melt," Ansem said awkwardly, obviously straining to keep from dropping the huge cooler he was trying to carry. "I don't think there's enough ice in here to keep it cold enough."

"I'll take that," Yuffie called helpfully, meandering into the room. "Here—let's get it into the kitchen freezer."

Watching the two of them head off, Kairi grinned, tore down her note, and closed the door.

An exception to the age rule had been made for Ansem due to something that had happened about six months ago, when Axel had taken Roxas out to dinner to celebrate his half-birthday. (That was one of the reasons Kairi had so much appreciation for the guy; how many boyfriends actually made a big deal over your _half-birthday?) _They'd been coming home in the rain when another driver had hit Axel's old car hard and sped off without stopping. The accident had been a very bad one; Roxas had been fine except for a few cuts and bruises, but Axel had very much _not _been. Hurled into the windshield, he'd broken his leg in three places, and no matter how Roxas called for help—the nearest stop on the road was almost a mile away, and Roxas didn't want to leave Axel there—no one had stopped for them.

No one, that was, until Ansem drove by. After hearing what had happened from Roxas, he'd called an ambulance and covered Axel (who was in obvious danger of going into shock) with his coat and the fancy jacket he'd been wearing to a scientists' convention just minutes ago. Later on, the nurses who had helped treat Axel said that he would've spent much more time recovering if Ansem hadn't stopped when he did.

That one act of kindness was plenty enough for Sora and the rest of his far-flung friends, who had made a unanimous decision to accept Ansem as "one of the guys". He now got invited to hang out with them on various occasions, even meriting inclusion in Sora's sleepovers, which actually made Sora's parents happier, as they felt they could trust Ansem at least to make sure nothing _too _bad happened while they were out.

Well, now that Ansem was here, Kairi reflected, the _real _fun would be starting very, very soon.

As soon as Sora came in from the backyard, at least.

---

NEXT: He's cute. He's sporty. He's everything you've ever wanted… but he doesn't seem to notice that you even exist. What's a hopelessly-in-love fourteen-year-old girl to do? Not leave it to Rikku and Paine, God forbid. They'd probably screw your chances with Tidus forever. XD

Drabble #4: "Of Crushes and Blitzball"


	4. Of Crushes and Blitzball

Overnight

See disclaimer in Drabble #1

"Riku! Riku! I'm open! Pass me the ball! Riiikuuuu!"

"You better not mess up this time," Riku yelled, and kicked the soccer ball hard, twisting his waist to throw his entire body into the action. His heavy, oversized darkwashed jeans were covered with streaks of green—fresh grass stains—and his sleeveless black shirt was sweaty, with the pull zipper down the front coming undone and showing a sweat-shiny triangle of the pale skin of his chest. Tendrils of his silvery hair clung to his face, dampened from hours of running around the backyard in the ferocious two-on-two game he played.

Sora yelled and dove for the ball as it zipped past Wakka, the crown pendant around his neck jangling on its heavy chain. His black shorts were covered in dirt, as the dive seemed to be his signature response to Riku's dangerously powerful kicks, and there were twigs and blades of grass caught in his hair, but he looked so irrepressibly happy despite it. His hoodie T-shirt was hanging open, showing the red sleeveless he had on under it. Splotches of sweat and grass stains were all over it, but Sora didn't really seem to mind.

The brown-haired boy's head collided with the ball just in time; it sailed past Wakka a second time and brushed the white mesh of the old kiddy goal that the boys had pulled out.

The fourth of the players ground to a halt, stuck his first two fingers into his mouth, and blew hard, creating an ear-piercing whistle that made both Wakka and Riku wince. "Okay—you got lucky that time. Switch sides!"

As Riku went over to pull Sora up, Tidus looked to Wakka, grinned, and shrugged amiably. They'd been at their game of soccer-cum-blitzball for several hours now and showed no sign of letting up or even keeping score. But the point seemed rather for them all to have fun instead of a competition, and that was what the boys seemed to like best, even at their age.

Yuna rested her chin in her cupped palms and sighed, sinking against the porch railing happily.

Tidus was unbelievably gorgeous. His mop of dark strawberry-blonde hair flopped around his face as he finger-combed it back and forth, his Velcro-banded wristwatch flashing in the sunlight. He was wearing a navy blue vest over his white poet shirt, as well as soldier's-gray pants with detachable lower legs; he'd taken the left one off but left the right on, and there were a few reddish marks where the loose zipper had smacked against his thigh, right above his knee, as he'd run around. He had on black sandals with an extra strap around the ankles so that they were safe to run in, also connected with Velcro rather than buckles.

He was cute, he was charismatic, he was athletic, he was Yuna's personal dream of perfect manhood—but he was sixteen, and therein lay the problem. Tidus was in high school this year, whereas she was still stuck in middle school. She'd been one of his barely-noticed admirers before, but she had to be all but invisible to him now, since lovely high school beauties surrounded him. Yuna frowned down at herself. High school beauties with actual _boobs. _She couldn't believe that she was fourteen and still practically flat. It was no wonder she hadn't been able to get any kind of boyfriend, let alone Tidus.

But none of Tidus' hangers-on had been invited to this party, so Yuna could stand and watch him to her heart's content.

Or she would be able to if her friends hadn't been invited as well…

"Yuna, it's been an hour since you got here," Paine said flatly from where she was leaning against the wall.

Yuna didn't answer, chasing Tidus with her eyes and paying only scant attention to her friend.

"If this is all you're going to do, then I'm going inside."

Yuna blanched, whirled around, and grabbed Paine's wrists, her eyes huge and pleading. "No! Don't leave me out here!"

Paine just rolled her eyes. "You came to this party to try to talk to Tidus, _right?"_

"Well…"

"But you're just sitting here ogling him, and he hasn't even noticed you because you can't so much as speak up. He's busy playing, and he won't realize you're here unless you _say _something. I came to support you, but if you won't do anything, then there's no point in me supporting you. So I'm going inside to hang out with Larxene."

Calmly, Paine extricated her wrists from Yuna's death grip and walked back into the house, letting the screen door swing shut behind her.

_"Paine!" _Yuna wailed, shaking both fists in front of her.

"She's right, you know," Rikku told her, swinging her feet back and forth as she leaned back from where she perched on the railing. "C'mon, Yuna, don't chicken out! This is your big chance! Don't waste it!"

"I know… but…" Yuna looked at Tidus and sighed dejectedly, slumping down on the stairs that led into the yard itself. "I just don't want him to say no, you know?"

"But there's nothing to gain by sitting here, is there?" Rikku reasoned. "Come on, Yunaaaaa…"

Yuna made a noncommittal sound and drew her knees up to her depressingly flat chest, playing with her shoelaces as she followed Tidus with her eyes. Oh, if only he would just look her way and ask her… _anything…_

Looking up after shaking the sticks out of his hair, Sora caught sight of them and waved. "Yuna! K.K.! Hi! Why are you just sitting over there? You wanna play, too?"

Rikku jumped up happily. "Sure!" She bounced off the siderail and dashed out to join the boys, the jade beads in her blonde hair clicking as she ran.

_Some best friends, _Yuna sulked to herself. _They're no help at all._

Rikku was chattering to all of them now, completely brimming with a confidence that Yuna just didn't have and probably never would. She'd already had a few casual boyfriends, nothing she was serious about, but she'd gotten them to go out with her so _easily. _She didn't worry at all about talking to guys, not like Yuna. Paine just didn't care about dating and boys, and scorned them when they came too close, but she still got much more attention than Yuna herself did.

Rikku was talking to Tidus now in a low tone that Yuna couldn't hear. The brown-haired girl sank even lower down where she sat, dejected. Could this day possibly get any worse? Rikku was probably flirting with him, for all she knew—

But the next thing Yuna knew, Tidus himself was walking up to her. Promptly turning red, she stood up and stared at him, wide-eyed.

"You know we can't play with an odd number of people," he said to her (to HER! Tidus actually SPOKE to her!) with a friendly smile. "You wanna be on my team, too?"

Fighting the urge to faint, Yuna stared at her toes. "I'm… not very good… and I don't know the rules very well…" she mumbled desperately.

"That's okay, Wakka and me'll teach you! Come on, it'll be fun!" Tidus coaxed, taking her by the wrist and pulling her onto the grass.

Trying to resist going insane out of the fact that Tidus was touching her (TIDUS! WAS! **_TOUCHING!_** HER!), Yuna did her best to keep up, maintaining her short skirt with her other hand. Tidus didn't seem to notice. "Hey, everybody be nice to Yuna, okay? I know you can, so you don't have any excuse not to."

"Nice? Who says we wouldn't be?" Sora asked, the perfect picture of innocence.

"Get outta here. You and Riku play as dirty as they come," Tidus said with a wave. "What's the score, again?"

"A million to two," Sora told him, sticking out his tongue.

"The REAL score, stupid! That isn't it!"

"Then keep track yourself," Sora replied.

Tidus rolled his eyes. "Fine. Then we'll just have to start over since we have two new players anyway." He turned to Yuna and grinned. "Remember to kick the ball with the side of your shoe or your laces instead of your toes, and you'll do just fine." Turning towards the rest of his audience, he blew his ear-splitting whistle again. "Okay! Round two is up! We're gonna get you for sure now!"

While the others had all winced, Yuna was staring at Tidus in fascination. "How do you do that?" she asked, curiosity overcoming the strength of her shyness.

"What?" Tidus asked, looking blank. "Oh—the whistle? You just put two fingers in, and…" He shrugged. "It's easier to do with your thumb and your pointer, actually."

Yuna tried three times, coming up with nothing twice and one pathetic little tweet.

"I'll teach you sometime later, okay? Right now, we have to whip these sissies," Tidus said with a grin, pointing at Sora's team.

Yuna blushed and nodded, watching as Tidus trapped the ball under his sandal and got ready to kick it, starting off the new round of his nameless game.

Maybe this party wouldn't be so bad after all.

---

NEXT: Everyone has his or her little addictions… video games, TV shows, candy, coffee. It only gets ugly when you're obsessed with poker and all your buddies are getting sick of you clocking them at it. :D

Drabble No. 5: "In the Cards"


	5. In the Cards

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

To cause havoc, some people needed firearms or explosives.

As for Luxord, all he needed was an ordinary, innocent-looking deck of playing cards.

As soon as he'd broached the subject of his favorite game, Axel had gone pale and wide-eyed, grabbing Demyx and Roxas by the shoulders and marching them down to the basement to do a sound test of their CD mixes. Xemnas, pretending he hadn't heard, had gone over to ask the girls if any of them had an eyeliner pencil he could borrow, as he hadn't thought to put any on beforehand. (Most of the Organization, who generally shook their heads at Xemnas and his eyeliner—the only makeup he wore, but makeup that he still wore voluntarily—had looked jealous and irritable at their leader's valid excuse.) Larxene gave him a jaundiced glare and told him that he could go to hell.

The other seven Organization members, though… they hadn't been so lucky.

Marluxia sighed and cast down his cards. "I fold."

"Leaving so soon?" Luxord asked innocently, staring at his leader over the four aces in his hand.

"My hand blows, and I'm bored," the redhead told the gambler. "And I'd rather pay you a little money now than a lot later." He sat up and pushed his chair in, leaving a five-dollar bill on the table as he sauntered off to go bother Xemnas in the bathroom.

Luxord looked around at the others. "Anyone else?"

Lexaeus, his leather jacket straining a little over his big shoulders and broad chest, shrugged. "I know I always lose, but still, it's something to do. Besides, I'll get all my money back when blitzball season hits."

All too true. Luxord was the master of most games, but Lexaeus trumped even him in blitzball bets. The burly, usually somewhat amiable man tracked player statistics religiously, and always managed to rake in up to thousands of dollars when the blitzball games opened up.

"Are you kidding?" blonde-haired Vexen spat. "Leave _now, _when I'm gonna nail you for good this time?"

Xigbar and Xaldin nodded in agreement, shifting their cards around.

Saïx gave Luxord a look. "May we continue, please? I'd like to finish playing this hand, if you don't mind." Despite the politeness of his words, Saïx's tone was laced with poison. Evidently, he wasn't doing as well as he would've liked.

Undaunted, Luxord turned to the last of their number. "Zexion?"

The silver-haired young man made a "hmph" noise and stared moodily at his cards. This didn't necessarily mean anything about his hand, however; Zexion usually acted like that.

"All right then, let's move on, shall we?"

As the game proceeded, Luxord carefully watched his coworkers' faces. Saïx began to acquire a distinctly sulky look after a few more rounds, Xaldin started to seem desperate, Xigbar chewed on a nail, and Vexen grinned maniacally. Luxord resisted the urge to shake his head tragically. His companions just didn't seem to understand the meaning of the words 'poker face'. Lexaeus was a little harder to read, but Luxord caught his small "oh well" shrug as he surveyed his cards and knew that the burly man's hand wasn't as strong as its holder.

Zexion, with is perpetually gloomy, moody countenance, was the only one who Luxord normally wouldn't be able to read, the only wild card in the hand, so to speak. But tonight, he was the easiest one to figure out. Luxord smiled to himself. He had nothing to worry about.

"All right, then, gentlemen, let's see what you've got," he said cheerfully.

Lexaeus shrugged and tossed down his cards. He had an assortment of spades, clubs, and diamonds, all with low numbers. Xaldin was next. He set down a full set of nines, to be followed by Xigbar's full set of tens. Saïx had four queens; Zexion only had random cards, like Lexaeus.

Vexen was next. With a loud "HA!", he slapped down four kings.

"Beat that," he sneered. "Looks like the money is mine this time!"

Luxord smiled and cast down his aces.

Xaldin and Xigbar exchanged looks, Lexaeus shrugged again, Saïx glared, and Zexion stared at the cards apathetically, radiating his typical dismal air.

Vexen purpled. "You… you… you…! I know you're cheating somehow, I just _know _it! I'll get you next time, just you wait and see!" With that, he turned on his heel and flounced into the family room to join the others, who were starting to congregate around the television set.

"Well, better luck next time, everyone," Luxord said cheerfully as he raked the players' piles of poker chips and money back towards him. "Maybe you'll be able to win some of this back then."

The other five Organization members just gave Luxord looks that stated that they knew how likely that was going to be.

Humming tunelessly to himself, Luxord gathered and reshuffled the cards, taking his time after the others left, then counted the bets he'd won. All told, he'd gathered up about three hundred dollars from his compatriots.

"Very clever," a voice behind him commented.

"Hmmm?" Luxord said calmly, turning. Ansem had meandered in to watch the last part of the game, and was standing there with his arms folded behind his back, his white hair tucked behind his ears. Though he'd never say it out loud, the gambler still found the remnants of Ansem's burn scars slightly disturbing, as they'd left slightly discolored trails of skin over his cheeks, forehead, and hands. Supposedly, the scarring continued along his chest as well, but Luxord wouldn't know. He supposed that one would have to ask Leon if that was true, if one dared to risk the consequences. The lighter, shiny pink shrapnel scars—which _would _fade completely after several more months passed—interlaced over them did not help, either.

"The way you set the table up. Asking Zexion last, so that he would be sitting in front of _that," _Ansem gestured towards a tall cabinet with mirrors along its doors, "giving you a perfect view of his hand. Setting up the deck so that you would get the aces no matter _how _you drew. Very, very clever, Luxord."

"Caught me out, have you, old man?" Luxord laughed, stroking his short ash-blonde beard. "Well, they do say that the best gamblers are the ones who set the odds in their favor."

Ansem smiled. "Even for a man who peeks at his friends' cards and plays with loaded dice, I must admit that I like your logic, Luxord. Sometime, you must try to win without cheating. I think you'll find that the monetary earnings you win will only be that much sweeter to you then. You certainly are gifted with these games."

Luxord's smile turned into a grin. "I'll only do that when the odds are so high in my favor that I'm not likely to lose even so."

Ansem shook his head, still smiling. "Well, then, I wish you good cheating until then."

Luxord laughed at that. "I trust you won't tell anyone?"

"Most certainly not. The best researchers are the ones who observe diligently and keep their mouths shut about what they see. The ones who talk too freely sometimes don't live for very long," Ansem said pointedly.

They both laughed at that one.

"I really _must _play against you sometime."

"When we do, my friend, I believe I'll do the shuffling. Just to make sure you aren't pulling the strings, you understand."

Luxord nodded soberly. "Of course."

"Of course," Ansem replied. "Now, we should go. Sora's parents have dinner almost ready, and Kairi's getting the movie set up. She sent me to tell you all that she'll start it as soon as everyone is there."

The two of them headed into the family room, joining the gathering of all the guests, a few of whom were shooting Luxord dirty glares. Feeling his chest swell proudly, the gambler tried not to gloat.

At least not too much.

---

NEXT: Inside jokes that the whole group understands are a wonderful thing. So is playing a movie that you all love so much that you can recite and act out the entire script by heart.

Drabble No. 6: "Pirates"


	6. Pirates

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

Every party guest waited in silence as they passed around the plate of pigs in blankets that Sora's parents had made, staring fixedly at the big-screen TV, washed only in the light cast by the images it projected. Getting everyone into the room was a tight fit, but they'd managed it by pushing the coffee table into a corner. Ansem, Leon, Cloud, and Sephiroth were crammed onto the squishy couch, with Aerith, Tifa, Yuffie, Xemnas, Marluxia, and Saïx on the floor directly in front of them. From Saïx, Xaldin, Xigbar, Vexen, and Lexaeus were crowded up against the coffee table and the bookcase that leaned against the wall; Zexion and Demyx sat in front of them, hunkered down so as not to obstruct their view. Luxord sat away from the other Organization members, next to Aerith, probably to avoid the anger of his companions, from whom he had apparently just won an exorbitant amount of money in their recent poker game. In front of the girls of Cloud's group were Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, Hayner, Pence, and Olette; Yuna was next to Tidus, holding his hand a little self-consciously. Paine and Rikku, both looking smug, were on her other side.

Namine began the front row, sitting in front of the taller Organization members, doodling absently in her sketchbook as she sat with her eyes fixed to the screen. Next to her was Kairi, sprawled happily on her stomach with her elbows resting on a cushion she'd stolen from the couch before the older guys had sat down on it. Riku and Sora were next to her, leaning into each other and grinning up at the movie. Roxas, beside them, stole occasional kisses from Axel, next to him, as they watched; Larxene, lying on her back while propped against her sleeping bag, kicked Axel in the shoulder whenever they started to distract her too much.

All said, Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swan probably would've been flattered by the intensity of their audience.

The group was perfectly silent until the young Elizabeth began to haltingly sing "A Pirate's Life For Me", at which they all joined in with full chorus, Axel particularly enjoying being able to belt out "and really bad eggs", after which he whispered something to Roxas that made him blush. Finishing the song, they all broke out into laughter, hushing only when they had to in order to hear the dialogue of the movie.

Yes, every single one of them, from the youngest of the girls (Rikku) to the most jaded of the Organization members (Xemnas), was a total Pirates of the Caribbean junkie.

No matter what else happened at Sora's sleepovers, this was always one thing that stayed the same. At the same time every night they all got together, they would put in the DVD and fully enjoy every minute of it, almost as though they were seeing it for the first time.

Well, almost. First-time moviegoers surely would not have gone "This is my favorite part!" as soon as Jack Sparrow began to approach Port Royal in his steadily sinking ship. They probably wouldn't have been able to recite all the dialogue from the tetchy soldier's "This dock is off-limits" (Riku and Sora were the two soldiers, while Axel pitched in with a perfect Jack Sparrow drawl), nor would they have chimed in when Elizabeth remarked, "I can't breathe" (every single one of the girls in the audience did this).

It was likely that they wouldn't have booed and thrown things when Barbossa first appeared onscreen either, to be hushed by Aerith so that they could actually hear the scene.

And the fencing scenes so beautifully parodied by Riku and Sora _had _to have been rehearsed.

As well as the way that everyone began to sing the movie's theme as soon as it began to play, with everyone perfectly in pitch (they hadn't bothered to do this with "A Pirate's Life For Me").

And there had surely been work put into the infamous scene between Jack and Elizabeth on the rum runners' islet, which Axel and Larxene actually stood up to act out, amidst riotous cheers from the rest of the audience.

Nor would someone seeing the movie for the first time yell "TAKE HER SHIRT OFF!" (in the fashion of Genie during the infamous balcony scene during Aladdin, or so it was rumored) every time Will and Elizabeth started to fumble around the subject of romance (it started out just with Marluxia, but it soon became a chorus into which the entire Organization threw their all).

And a lot of experience obviously told everyone exactly when Jack would scream "STOP BLOWIN' 'OLES IN MY SHIP!" during the infamous battle between the Interceptor and the Black Pearl.

Be all that as it may, they certainly enjoyed the movie as much as they would've if it were their first time seeing it, surely.

It was amazing that they could do that, considering the number of times they'd done this over the past year alone. _Truly _amazing. The stuff of otaku legend, if truth be told.

After the credits reeled, Sora inched up to the DVD player and changed discs.

The chorus of "THIS is my favorite part!" heralded his selecting the blooper reel from the menu.

At every clip, strains of cheering, applause, and frantic laughter ensued, though the large group hushed in time for Ansem to pull off his perfect impression of Barbossa's reflexive cry of "No!", which received still more cheering and applause. (Ansem stood and gave a proper stage bow in all directions, then sat back down.)

For all their differences, their love of one simple thing could bring them to perfect unity.

It could heal all discords and reforged all friendships.

Quite an experience to credit to a ragtag bunch of pirates, all in all.

---

NEXT: Everybody loves to dance. Everybody loves to sing. Everybody loves karaoke machines. And everybody especially loves to hear Axel singing to Demyx's playing… particularly when he's singing for Roxas.

Drabble No. 7: "Ode to You"


	7. Ode to You

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

Grinning crookedly to her assembled audience, which had been cheering enthusiastically since she'd gotten halfway through her last sustained note, Larxene half-bowed, half-curtsied and sauntered off the makeshift stage, slipping her microphone back onto its stand. Several of the Organization members, as well as Sora, Tidus, Wakka, Hayner, and Pence, were stamping their feet and whistling, as well.

Roxas reached out to clap Larx on the shoulder as she headed back into the multitudes. Most of them had taken their turn playing rock star after they'd finally exhausted Axel's mixed CDs, having danced through every one of them, but Larxene had definitely been one of the best. She always sung punky, smartassed things when the group lined up for karaoke at Sora's sleepovers; tonight her tune of choice had been "Don't Let Me Get Me" by Pink, which she had just the right voice for. She didn't dance around while she sang, but she'd still thrown her heart into the music. Bitchy and impatient with her male counterparts though she was, Larxene really did love to sing, and Roxas in turn loved that about her.

When he turned back around to the stage, Demyx was kneeling up by the wall, plugging his guitar into the amps next to the big speakers. And Axel was sauntering up towards his mic of choice, adding the little sashay to his step that automatically nailed Roxas' eyes to his rear end. With an impudent grin back at his boyfriend, he tapped the microphone a little harder than was necessary; his grin grew when the assembled listeners all winced at the squeal it emitted. Leaning down, he spoke into it. "Just checking to make sure it's still on. You never know; Larx could've blown it out while she was up here. Better safe than sorry, mm?"

Larxene flipped the bird at him and blew a raspberry.

"I love you too, Larxy."

"DON'T CALL ME LARXY, YOU ASS," she seethed, sending a shiver of nervous giggles through the onlookers. When irritable, Larxene could be dangerous. Just because she loved Axel like a kid brother didn't mean that she was above beating the crap out of him every now and then.

Axel's grin widened. "Have it your way," he said, and absently blew her a kiss as he fixed the height of the telescoping stand. "Well, anyway. To round out the party down here tonight, Demyx and I have got a little something we cooked up a while back." A few enthusiastic cheers erupted at this; there were several fans of Axel and Demyx's 'little somethings'. Leaning down slightly, Axel winked as he purred into the microphone, "This is for Roxas."

The blonde in the crowd felt a pleasantly cool tingle glide slowly from the nape of his neck to his toes, which he curled and uncurled against the tile of the floor.

Demyx cued the stereo; in the space of an eyeblink, the basement was flooding with sound.

Because it was only the two of them, Axel and Demyx (and occasionally Larxene as well) recorded the drums, bass, and backup vocals of their songs ahead of their impromptu performances at Sora's house, enhancing and rearranging the sound on the PC at the downtown studio, which gave their work a slightly techno flair. Now, the heavy thrum of the bass guitar's electric chords crackled and throbbed through the floor and the walls. As the crowd began to shift to the beat, finding their rhythm within the pulsing guitar backline, Roxas stood still as the pounding of the deepest drums sped up his pulse, threading its possession through the corners of his heart and soul.

Axel's music owned Roxas' mind as deeply and thoroughly as its creator owned the boy's body once the two had lured each other into bed. Axel knew it, Roxas knew it, and both of them gloried in it on the dance floor. It was a twist on foreplay that only the two of them could fully experience.

_"You set a fire inside me," _Axel crooned into the microphone, which projected his voice across the basement in a bold echo that made the soft hair on the back of Roxas' arms stand up. _"Burned your name into my soul. I'll carry this brand until I die…"_

Roxas felt heat start to spread along his cheeks as he recognized the words.

_"Set something inside me free. Take me or break me, you are my ecstasy… living with you's got me on a high…" _Axel's eyes were open just a slit as he let his voice curl into a rasping, burrish half-moan. _"Trapped inside you, I can't breathe without the smoke from your fire, my black desire. I rise from the ashes of my soul, you are the half that makes me whole…"_

Axel stared directly into Roxas' eyes, sending another wild chill through his body, as he finished the verse with deadly softness. _"You ignite me."_

Vaguely aware that the thirty other guests were all clumped in a swarm just behind him, dancing desperately to Axel's darkly seductive, husky voice and Demyx's frantic cadenzas along the spaces through the song where not even the bass thrummed in the background. Disbelief held his eyes wide with wonder; amazement kept his feet still even through the rhythm that petulantly demanded movement.

_"I write love songs in my sleep… I can't get enough of you, can't get away. You're dragging me to your purgatory and I like it. Cure me and curse me, you'll only addict me. You set me on fire, you love me, ignite me."_

Axel's voice shifted keys as he slipped into the bridge; even the swirling rapids of Demyx's playing calmed and eddied, letting the redhead take full possession of the direction of the song.

_"And I'll always need more passion than you know… but with your flame in my blood I'll face my future without fear. You are my light, my sanctuary… you bury me… simplicity… depravity… debauchery… helpless for you, helpless from you. I need you—need you—you're the spark, enflame me, ignite me…"_

Roxas had to admit that he was impressed. Axel had taken words that had seemed clunky, awkward, foolish, even, after the half-awake peace of the morning after had ended and he'd reawakened to his own sensibility, and _streamlined _them somehow, made them electric. More than electric. He'd turned them into some kind of liquid fire that was burning its way up and down his spine at that very moment. God, it was liberating—frightening even. And it was as Axel himself had just sung out for all to hear—though the feeling terrified him, at the same time, he couldn't help but like it.

Yes, Axel was his drug, and he would happily go down in flames as long as the two of them could stay together until it ended. Roxas revised that in his mind. He would happily stay with Axel _forever, _if it was at all possible. After seven months, he couldn't imagine life without the one he'd given himself to, body and soul.

The last of the guitar chords died away as the drums gave one last crash, and Axel eased out of his pose, his chest heaving, and bowed from the waist to the crowd, which had gone completely crazy. Demyx grinned and gave them all a thumbs-up, while Axel just slipped the mic back onto the stand and hopped down, cuddling up to Roxas.

"What a rush," he said almost giddily, nuzzling up to his younger, shorter boyfriend and pressing his forehead to Roxas' spiky hair. "Even better than setting empty beer cans on fire and chucking them down the road."

Roxas felt himself blush as he squirmed around to look Axel in the eye. "You used my lyrics," he said pointedly. Axel looked extremely innocent, always a sign of his having been up to no good. "After you _promised _me you'd burn those horrible, embarrassing things."

"Well, they did need some fixing," Axel admitted. He gave the blonde a winning grin. "But hey, they cleaned up really nicely, didn't they? I couldn't get them out of my head; Demyx helped me fix the tune."

"But, _Axel, _we got most of that crap from the weird things I say when… when…" Roxas grimaced, and felt his ears go hot. "It's mortifying."

_"They _don't know that," Axel pointed out. "Besides…" He let his hands crawl down to Roxas' hips, slipping his thumbs through the belt loops of his jeans. "Maybe I wanted there to be something private in that song, just for the two of us. It's my little ode to you anyway, and I'd expect you to get more out of it than anybody else."

Roxas blushed even more thoroughly and couldn't speak to find a reply.

Axel didn't seem to mind, though, breaking into another wide grin as he leaned down and kissed the younger boy deeply.

Roxas let go quickly, closing his eyes and surrendering to Axel's insistence. When their lips locked together, he felt like he was drowning in fire; as Axel pulled back to drift a floaty line of teasing, breathy butterfly kisses along Roxas' forehead and temple, the young blonde fidgeted in his boyfriend's tight embrace, twining his fingers demandingly in Axel's shirt and letting out a short, fitful, impatient sound somewhere between a cry and a moan.

Larxene, passing by them as the crowd dispersed, threw something balled-up and white at them. "Go get a room," she suggested with little malice and a crooked smile.

Axel grinned at her impudently. "Since Sora's parents took off before we came down here, I think we will," he retorted, wiggling his black eyebrows. Reaching up on tiptoe, Roxas leaned in close to him, settling his swollen lips on the soft pulse of Axel's blood beneath the curve of his neck.

"Lech," Riku grumbled as he and Sora went by.

Sora himself, smiling broadly at the pair, threw something red in a shiny wrapper at them, hitting Roxas right in the forehead before Axel managed to catch it. "Here," the brunet called back to them. "Mom will have a conniption fit if you don't use one. You made a mess last time, and she made _me _clean the sheets."

Axel snorted, wiggling the condom between his right pointer and index finger. "Poor baby. And you didn't even have Riku to contribute to it then. I bet that was awkward for you."

Roxas, only half paying attention, closed his eyes and clung closer to Axel's body.

The mingled fire of the music and Axel's kisses was still churning through his blood, and it would remain there for some time.

---

NEXT: So everyone else is having their fun. But Larxene's favorite game just so happens to be revenge. And she owes two certain boys for giving her a headache earlier on, so they're obviously next on her list. What's her evil plan? Well, that'll stay secret. Until she carries it out, anyway.

Drabble no. 8: "Bowling for Yaoi"


	8. Bowling for Yaoi

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

Despite her usual attitude, Larxene wasn't the type who always went around looking for trouble.

It usually came to her first and was a highly unwanted guest.

Still, she was a devout believer in the saying that what goes around comes around—even if she had to help it come around a little. That wasn't looking for trouble, was it? Not as _she _defined it. Her little acts of vengeance were all perfectly justified. Whenever anyone did anything too annoying or hurtful towards her, she made sure they got added to her mental list of people who needed a good fist in the face, or something similar.

Tonight, she felt like going for a mix of subtlety and blatancy in her latest efforts to get offenders crossed off that mental list.

Which was why she was tiptoeing up the stairs to the second floor of Sora's house, an empty glass in one hand and a paper bag in the other.

It was about ten-thirty, and Sora's parents had left an hour ago. So once the group had finished their little dance party downstairs, concluding it with Axel's way cool original song for Roxas, all the couples had taken that as their cue to slip upstairs for a little privacy. Larxene was still amazed that Sora's parents were so trusting of him—though, she reflected, they might just be really, really open-minded and laid-back about the facts of teenage life instead. They always had a basket filled with various kinds of condoms under the sink in every bathroom of the house, presumably through the philosophy that any sex that occurred in their house that wasn't between the two of them was going to be _safe _sex.

Even so, most of the young couples had been pretty discreet about where they were heading to do what they were doing. Axel and Roxas had been all over each other from the minute the song-and-dance routine downstairs had ended, so it wasn't hard to guess what they'd been doing for the past half-hour or so, but it was like Riku and Sora had been downstairs socializing one moment, and then the next minute Larxene blinked, she couldn't spot them anywhere.

Leon had just evaporated like their host and his boyfriend, too, but Larxene had observed Sephiroth leading Cloud upstairs by the wrist, and had put three and one together, so to speak, when she saw Ansem get up from his seat at the kitchen table abruptly, heading for the direction of the staircase. She almost pitied them, really; they did try to avoid notice, but attracted it just the same. Then again, they were the only foursome (in a manner of speaking; usually they didn't hook up all at once) that was in attendance, so it was obvious as hell when they all tried to leave within the same five minutes or so.

Anyway, Larxene had checked in the past five minutes, and neither Xemnas nor Marluxia was anywhere in sight, so she'd decided that it was time to go to work.

It was six blocks between Sora's house and the street where the three of them lived. And as they'd decided to walk together, that had meant six blocks of pure hell for Larxene. She had nothing against Xemnas as a person—hell, she'd stolen his eyeliner over a dozen times in the past six months, and he never seemed to mind—and Marluxia had always been her friend, but you would think that they would have _something _to do other than argue about the most idiotic things when they had someone else with them. Xemnas and Marluxia had been the joint leaders of the Organization ever since it had expanded into its original twelve members—two through six had all been Xemnas' followers, and with the exception of Axel, who had gotten them all together, and Roxas, who had been inducted after he'd gotten involved with the crazy pyromaniac, the rest had been Marluxia's gang—and they had never, ever been able to get along. Quite frankly, they hated each other's guts, and Larxene had absolutely no idea how it had gone from blows as in punches to blows as in _blowjobs _between them.

Basically they would get into a screaming row about something idiotically insignificant, it would turn them both on, and they'd jump each other. That was how it always worked. Larxene couldn't see any sense in it, but it made life very annoying for anyone around the two of them. She couldn't believe she'd survived having to live in the same townhouse with the two of them for the six months that had passed between her leaving her parents' place and getting her own row house just down the street from them. As it was, they'd carried on their twisted idea of foreplay for the entire walk to Sora's. Larxene had put her earphones in and turned up the volume until the screaming chords of her music had started to hurt, and she'd _still _heard them. For about half an hour after she'd gotten to the party, she'd had a throbbing headache that hadn't eased until Kairi had taken pity on her and given her some herbal tea and two Tylenol.

That had definitely merited inclusion to her "I will make your life three times the hell you made mine" list. And it looked to her as if it was payback time.

The problem was, there were about five rooms upstairs at Sora's place. So she'd have to be careful about which doors she decided to open—hence the glass. For all that the trick was overdone in every movie in the world, it worked like a charm, and sometimes it was the perfect little aid to revenge.

Pausing at the top of the stairs, Larxene shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Eenie meenie miney moe… I wonder what's behind door number one?" she wondered in an undertone, picking the leftmost door, which was slightly ajar.

Peeking through the crack, Larxene saw nothing and heard nothing. Oh well. Time to check door number two. At least she knew that she'd find _something _there.

This door was closed tightly, so Larxene very carefully set the glass to the wood, with the bottom towards her, and pressed her ear to the cold crystal.

_"Ohhh… Riku… Riku…"_

Hmmmkay, time for door number three. Riku could be an ass sometimes, but Larxene liked Sora (didn't everyone?) and didn't really feel like embarrassing him by listening in on his sex life. If she wanted details, she could just ask Kairi later, anyway.

This next door, leading into the guest room, was just open enough for Larxene to peek in and catch a glimpse of Roxas, naked as far as she could see (which was just to right above his waist), lying on his back with fistfuls of the sheets clenched in both hands, entirely dead to the rest of the world, panting fitfully. She couldn't see Axel anywhere, but she bet she knew what he was doing.

Roxas shifted on the sheets and gasped, saying in a voice that was starting to crack, "Oh, God, Axel, don't—don't—oh God—stop—you can't kiss me there, you can't—oh God—oh Axel—oh God, _yes—"_

Larxene smiled wryly. She loved it when she was right.

As wonderful as the mental images she was conjuring were, and as much fun as she was having listening in on Axel and Roxas (who were, as part of the Organization, perfectly fair game for her to go after and royally embarrass), she couldn't forget that she was up here to do a job. There would be other sleepovers, and other nights to satisfy her shonen-ai fixation. At the moment, vengeance was a little more important.

Very gently pulling the door to the guest room closed, Larxene headed on through the hall, chewing her lip. She doubted that Xemnas and Marluxia had gotten upstairs in time to snag Sora's parents' room (and hoped to God that they hadn't; they weren't nearly as careful about cleanup as Cloud, Leon, Seph, and Ansem), but supposed she'd better check anyway.

She settled the glass to the door, and closed her eyes to concentrate.

Unfortunately for her, she couldn't hear any voices right away, just a lot of hoarse breathing. Making a face, she was about to pull away and check the next door, the one to the upstairs office, when she heard someone say something in a tone too low for her to make out words. Still, she recognized the voice. Leon. Okay, so that answered the question for her. With a slow, evil smile beginning to spread across her face, she walked over to the next door and set down the glass against the wall.

She could hear a few muffled curses as close as she was standing, and knew for sure that it was Xemnas and Marluxia in there. None of the other couples were weird enough to swear at each other during intercourse.

Her smirk growing, Larxene quickly blew as much air as she dared into the paper bag, holding it shut within her tightly clenched fist and closing her free hand on the doorknob.

Very gently, she eased the door open.

Larx needn't have worried; Xemnas and Marluxia were beyond noticing anything as trivial as a door squeaking. Biting her lip, she held out her arm for a short moment, then swung with as much force as she could muster. The bag exploded with a sound like a gunshot; both Xemnas and Marluxia yelled, jumped apart, and stared at her, bewildered expressions on their faces, still bare-assed and sweaty (but shocked out of the wicked boners they'd had only seconds before).

"What the fuck, Larx!" Marluxia demanded, blushing bright scarlet

Larxene couldn't help it any longer; she doubled up laughing. "Serves you two right, you dumbasses!" she crowed, then grabbed the glass and hightailed it downstairs before either of them could do anything to her.

"She…" Xemnas said blankly, bewildered. "She saw us butt-naked!"

"That girl has problems," Marluxia grumbled.

Awkward silence ensued, their moment destroyed—and neither of them could yet figure out why exactly Larx had been so adamant about pranking them.

---

NEXT: Now that everything else on the checklist has been taken care of, it's time for the very last thing before the guys and the girls separate for the night: Ansem's infamous ice cream, always something to celebrate about.

Drabble no. 9: "Blue Moon"


	9. Blue Moon

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

Everyone had their favorite parts to Sora's sleepovers. The uninhibited socialization, the movies, the dancing and singing…

Cloud's was a little bit unusual, as compared to most other people's.

He stood shoulder to shoulder with Aerith behind the kitchen counter, very carefully drizzling a trail of strawberry syrup over his vanilla ice cream. Almost everyone else had gotten theirs from the various cartons Ansem had crammed into the cooler he'd hauled all the way from his place to Sora's, and they only had to fight for room with Sora, dumping even more almonds onto his already nut-choked Rocky Road, and Yuffie, dumping sugar onto her orange sherbet.

Aerith herself gently shook the nearly-empty can of whipped cream before spraying some onto her vintage cherry chocolate chip, the kind that had maraschino cherries mixed into _vanilla _ice cream instead of cherry, like Edy's and most other ice cream brands carried. It was extremely hard to find, and Ansem prided himself on always being able to get it for Aerith, who loved it more than any other kind of ice cream.

Waiting until Aerith was done and reaching for the little jar of chopped nuts, Cloud reached over to her ice cream bowl and slipped his pinky finger into the white cream. He was still sucking it off, thoroughly enjoying himself, when she turned back around. Seeing, she just smiled, shook her head, and moved her bowl over to one side.

This was a tradition that the two of them had always held throughout their childhood—their love of ice cream had tied them together, as Cloud's enrollment in the old school's kendo club had brought him that much closer to Tifa. Everyone who saw them as young children, running hand in hand after the ice cream truck on its rounds, remarked on what a cute couple Cloud Strife and Aerith Gainsborough would make when they grew up.

At least, they had until Aerith, Tifa, and Yuffie had managed to talk Cloud into wearing a carefully prepared dress and tights to school one day. Then all people could talk about was what a shame it was that that cute little Cloud Strife had turned out to be just another silly gay boy in the system.

Well, at least it had attracted Sephiroth's attention, if only to amuse the silver-haired young man. It had served its purpose.

Yuffie headed off, slurping her sherbet; Sora scooted down to give Cloud and Aerith more room.

Ice cream had always been a special thing for Cloud. Not only as a fond childhood memory when he was feeling nostalgic—it was on his first real job as an employee at the local ice cream parlor, Diamond Dust, that he'd gotten to know Ansem and Leon, who had stopped there often. And that had helped their unorthodox but unbelievably _real _relationship form.

Aerith gave Cloud a smile and headed off to sit with Tifa; Sora, finally emptying the bag of almonds, went over to Riku and Kairi.

Cloud was looking at the ingredients, wondering if there was anything else he wanted to add, when he felt soft arms fold around his body, holding him against someone else's warm chest.

Though usually he would've tensed up, tonight Cloud relaxed into the gentle embrace, leaning back into those supportive arms. It didn't really come as a surprise to him that Ansem had come to join him like this. Usually, the two of them didn't have that much to do with each other, but it was always different when they were at Sora's. It went the other way, too—Cloud could see that Sephiroth was lounging along the sofa, beautiful and elegant as always, with his head resting on Leon's shoulder. While even at home, Sephiroth was seen as Cloud's territory, on nights like this, he saw Leon as belonging to him as well, in the same fashion that Leon shared Ansem with Cloud. It was equally due to the warm atmosphere in this loving home and the fact that all four of them had been so intimate with each other earlier. This closeness might dissipate in the time that lapsed between now and the next sleepover, but some of it would remain. Sora was drawing the four of them together, slowly but surely.

Ansem was kind, gentle, considerate, and always worried enough that he and Leon would end up hurting Cloud's feelings with their relationship that it had just gotten impossible to hold any jealousy towards him. In addition to his passion for ice cream, which made even Cloud smile, he also had that rare, admirable trait of being able to weave tenderness into his dominance in bed. And while Cloud was captivated by Sephiroth's hair and Leon's eyes, he found himself always thinking that Ansem had beautiful hands. Their scarring only made them seem more unique and intriguing, though Ansem would never believe it himself.

The two of them remained in that position for what seemed like several minutes but couldn't be, or Cloud's ice cream would be melting, and hell would freeze over before Ansem would let that happen. Then, on some unseen cue, the dark-skinned man reached around Cloud for one as-yet unopened ice cream container, picked up the scoop, and took out one perfect ball of the ice cream to place on top of Cloud's strawberry-smothered vanilla. It didn't seem like any ice cream Cloud had ever had before—probably due to the fact that it was a pure robin's-egg blue.

"It's called Blue Moon, and it's almost as rare as Aerith's cherry," Ansem murmured. "I think you'll like it." Just as nonchalantly, he closed the container again, set the scoop down, and leaned in to plant a very soft kiss on Cloud's cheek before drifting off to wherever he'd been before.

After making Sephiroth stop hogging the couch, Cloud sat down to his ice cream. He saved the scoop of Blue Moon for last, careful to eat around it until everything else in the bowl was gone.

It was delicious.

---

NEXT: Just because the lights are out does not mean the girls are going to bed. Oh, no. Sleep? When there are important things like girly talk, dress-up, and truth-or-dare to do? You must be out of your mind.

Drabble no. 10: "Life on Venus"


	10. Life on Venus

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

"Lights out" was a pretty relative term at Sora's sleepovers.

And aside from that, it was _literal. _It just meant that the girls and guys would separate—the girls heading upstairs, the guys downstairs—and shut off the lights. Heading into the other gender's territory was strictly taboo, but that didn't mean that either group had to go to sleep. It was usually far from it—the option was always open, of course, but each of the two smaller parties tended to use the time to discuss things that the other gender wouldn't be able to fully understand or appreciate.

For instance, the things the girls were discussing at that moment, while the eleven of them sprawled around the Truth or Dare Jenga tower that they were examining by flashlight.

"So, I pretty much tell Xemnas that if he's going to get us a fourteenth member, it had darn well better be a _girl, _'cause I'm sick of all the damn guys I have to hang out with all the time. I mean, the gay ones all have boyfriends who are always all over them, twenty-four-seven—except for Saïx, anyway, the poor bastard—and all the _straight _ones are fixated on porn."

Larxene ran her fingertip from block to block, lazily inspecting them for selection as she swung her feet back and forth in the air, making the legs of her plaid pajama pants swish as they crossed.

Finally picking one out, Larxene looked it over. "Free truth," she declared. "Okay, anybody got a question?"

"Who would _you _want as a fourteenth member of the Organization?" Yuffie asked curiously, toying with a strand of her short, thick black hair.

Larxene shrugged from where she lay, then rolled over and lazily kicked the air. "I don't really know. Has to be one of the nobodies in our system, though. We pride ourselves on bringing out the best in the unknowns of this neighborhood."

Rikku blew a raspberry at her. "You mean the _worst."_

"Hey, did I ask you to comment?—anyway, lemme see… how about you, Namine?"

"Huh? _Me?" _Namine asked, pointing to herself in disbelief, dropping her sketchbook and pencil. "Why?"

_"Namine, _the new member of Organization XIII?" Kairi cracked up. "I just totally cannot see _that _happening… _ever!"_

"Oh, shut up, Ms. Social Butterfly," Larxene told her with a grin, playfully shoving her shoulder. "I'd have nominated _you, _but _damn, _girl, you're just too well-known already. And who knows Namine, aside from all the artsy-fartsy people around here? Come on, she's so quiet, she's practically invisible most of the time."

"Be nice, Larx," Yuffie said in a slightly disapproving tone.

"I am being nice. Namine has potential," Larxene replied simply. "But first, we'd definitely have to get rid of those sickeningly pure white dresses and get her some _real _clothes."

Namine folded her arms protectively over her dress, which she hadn't changed out of yet. "No way," she told the others, seeming unsure of whether to seem angry or amused. "I _like _my clothes."

Larxene, ignoring her, turned to the others. "We'd have to find robes for her, too, and _that _would be a problem. I hate to say it, Namine, but you're too tiny to fit anything we've got—even Roxas' old cast-off ones, and he's the youngest and shortest out of all of us. I mean, those things are real vintage leather."

"I'd pay to see you guys hauling Namine into Hot Topic," Paine told her with a crooked smile. "They'd have stuff in her sizes, but I think all the loud music might scare her off."

"She doesn't object to _our _loud music," Kairi pointed out. "Why should she be scared off by theirs?"

"I think the hardcore goths would probably scare her off, instead," Rikku commented. "They're nicer than they look, though—most of them, anyway. The last time I went in for some new Happy Bunny T-shirts, I met some pretty cool lady skinheads."

"I've never been to Hot Topic," Yuna mused. "I've seen it across the walk in the mall, though. You guys have to admit… it does look a little scary when you're on the outside looking in."

"The staff is great, though, and they don't _just _have punk clothes," Tifa admitted. "That's where I get a lot of my less-formal dresses."

"It's the _only _place I'll shop," Larxene told them, pounding a fist against the floor. "Whereas the more pure of you cringe at my idea of fashion, Abercrombie & Fitch makes me twitch."

"So who's wearing Abercrombie & Fitch?" Yuna demanded. "Ew! And their stuff is way too expensive, anyway! The Wet Seal or nothing!"

Larxene rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I guess the major point is, we'd have to get you off the bargain rack at Worth Repeating, Nami hon. And that might take a while. _Anything _but the plain white dresses. We could get you into a cute 'Born to Rock' shirt and some plaid miniskirts and real live _boots _and…"

"We should keep the game going, or we'll just forget it completely," Aerith reminded them, rescuing Namine from further embarrassment. "It's my turn."

"So go," the rest of the girls chorused, with Namine still clinging protectively to her dress.

Aerith slipped out a block of wood and examined it. "It's a free dare," she announced. "Does anyone—"

"I dare you to go downstairs when all the guys are asleep and steal Cloud's boxers!" Larxene burst out, jabbing her pointer finger in Aerith's direction.

There was a long silence in which all of the other girls stared at Larxene incredulously. It lasted for about half a minute—then everyone burst out laughing.

_"Steal Cloud's boxers?" _Kairi demanded, gasping, as she giggled. "Wow, Larx! That's a new low, even from _you! _Especially for Aerith—she's never so much as stolen _food _before!"

"Okay, so maybe it's a bit of a tall order," Larxene admitted. "So who wants to go with her?"

Silence.

"How 'bout you, Tifa? It's your turn next, and that way you can get out of it."

The black-haired girl threw up her hands. "How did I know you were going to say that?" Sighing exaggeratedly, she gave Larxene a look. "All right, I'll go—but that's only because you won't leave me alone otherwise."

"And of course, I'll have to go with you," Larxene said with a wicked grin, "just to make sure you actually _do _it instead of chickening out and going into Sora's room for some of his, or something."

Yuffie pouted. "But why not _me? _I could do it, easy! Come on—doesn't this seem like the perfect job for the Great Ninja Yuffie Kisaragi—"

"Here she goes again," Paine said wryly, shaking her head. Yuffie wasn't listening.

"With my mad ninja skillssssss," she caroled, picking up a few of Namine's pencils and brandishing them like kunai, jabbing a few kicks into the air.

Larxene smacked her in the face with a pillow. _"That's _why. You'll get carried away and steal _everyone's _boxers, you little dork. Besides, it'll be more fun if Aerith and Tifa do it. We have to get the good little girls to live on the wild side for once, don't we?"

"I guess so, but—" Yuffie continued to sulk.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "You're all nuts," she proclaimed. "I'm gonna go change. Don't keep playing until I come back, 'kay?"

"Better hurry, baby butt," Larxene called after her as she hurried into the guest room to collect her sleepshirt so that she could retreat into the bathroom in order to swap clothes.

The girls continued to talk in conspiratorial tones, bubbling over with plans, as they hovered over the fragile tower of blocks.

---

NEXT: The girls didn't go to sleep, so who's to say the guys will? Although, the guy talk kind of gets waylaid by other important business. Like defending each other's honor. So certain people are obviously going to have to shut up if they don't want a bunch of feathers in the kisser… XD

Drabble no. 11: "Open War"


	11. Open War

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

If high fashion was the topic of choice in the girls' circle, the boys seemed more fixated on high _passion._

Or, at least, the things that came with it.

"That is one seriously weird-sounding position," Riku said, making a face.

"You might say so, considering you and Sora have never tried it, but it's a hot one," Marluxia replied, smirking. "Nice view from the bottom, great sense of dominance from the top. And so long as you're not trying to run a marathon, it's a totally mind-blowing orgasm."

Like the girls, most of the guys were arranged in what passed for a circle, sprawled on their sleeping bags or propped up against pillows, sitting or lying down. Instead of flashlights, they had a few of Sora's childhood night-lights plugged into various sockets along the walls. A few (Pence, Xigbar, Xaldin, Luxord, Vexen, and Demyx) were asleep, but just about everyone else was in on the sex talk.

Riku arched an eyebrow. "And if you _are _trying to hold?"

"Then you'd better find a better position." Marluxia's smirk grew into a sharklike grin. "Y'know, there was this one time when Xemnas and I were first trying it out…"

Xemnas sat up and glared, his dark face flushing. "Hey! Shut up already!"

"…He didn't really listen to what we'd read about it, and so he…"

"Shut _up, _Marluxia!"

"…tried to hold longer than he could stand—God, it was hilarious. He—"

"I _said, _shut up!"

But Marluxia wasn't shutting up. As he opened his mouth to continue his tale, pillows slammed into him from either side with a heavy thumping sound.

Holding his head, Marluxia turned to glare at the very angry and embarrassed Xemnas on his left, then the irate-looking Saïx on his right. "Hey! What the hell is wrong with you two! I was trying to tell a _story _here!"

"Xemnas told you to stop," Saïx rumbled, brandishing his pillow.

"And what the hell is wrong with _you? _This is between us!" Marluxia swung his own pillow at the blue-haired man, who ducked just in time. The pillow smacked into Wakka instead.

The redhead stood up, angry. "Watch where you're aiming that thing!"

Zexion gave Wakka a look. "Don't gang up on Marluxia. You're fair in blitzball—why not here?"

Wakka, in return, gave Zexion a jaundiced glare. "Don't lecture me about fairness, emo boy!"

Zexion shot up off his sleeping bag and glowered at Wakka. "Call me emo ONNNE more time, I DARE you!" he hissed.

"Come on, guys, let's not—" Sora tried, but he was drowned out when Tidus yelled "PILLOW FIGHT!" and whapped Zexion in the back with his blue one, making the eighteen-year-old yelp in surprise.

Sora groaned and sank to the ground. "Mom is gonna _kill _me," he moaned. "We just cleaned this basement yesterday…"

"We'll clean it up afterwards, it's all good," Axel said helpfully, swinging his pillow hard to fend off impending attackers, standing back to back with Roxas.

"I'm holding you to that," Sora grumbled. Riku squeezed his shoulders, keeping his arm across his boyfriend's back as a show of sympathy.

Tidus' pillow was the first one to split, sending clouds of stuffing spilling everywhere. Wakka's and Marluxia's exploded next, sending showers of foam and feathers across the floor.

Sora groaned again, sinking even lower into Riku's half-embrace.

And then a sharp, ear-rending squeal rang through the air, forcing all the combatants to cover their ears.

Ansem was standing over by the microphone with an annoyed look on his face, his fist still upraised from smacking the receiver. "Knock it off," he said flatly. "Can't you save it for tomorrow, when you can go outside and plaster each other with water balloons? You don't have to trash Sora's basement just because you're angry at each other. You know that he, Riku, Kairi, Axel, Roxas, and Namine are going to have to clean it up tomorrow—and his parents may not let him invite you back over."

The combatants froze, guilty-faced. Sora turned to Ansem and mouthed "THANK YOU" gratefully.

"Well, we can just clean it up now, then," Tidus said with a shrug.

"You had better," Ansem told him. "All right everyone, let's get this fixed before we do anything else."

For a while at least, open war had been stayed.

---

NEXT: Sure, Larxene, we'll steal Cloud's boxers, but THEN what are we gonna do with them? …You've planned this from the start, haven't you…?

Drabble no. 12: "Flying the Flag"


	12. Flying the Flag

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

"Heh, just look at them. All sound asleep and unsuspecting," Larxene stage-whispered, poking her head around the corner of the wall into the boys' basement. "Buncha suckers."

Tifa exchanged glances with Aerith and sighed, rolling her eyes. It was 4:30 AM, and Larxene had rudely awakened them to haul them downstairs in order to fulfill the crazy dare she'd shoved Aerith into earlier that night. Personally, Tifa thought the whole thing was more than a little immature, but Aerith wasn't saying anything against Larxene's crazy antics (as usual) and Tifa had to admit, it looked like they'd been suckered into the whole thing pretty badly. And now, there was absolutely no getting away from it. It looked like they'd just have to do it.

_Insane, _Tifa thought to herself as Larxene headed out amongst the boys, stepping over them when necessary, with Aerith picking her way after the punkish blonde in order to get to Cloud, who was sleeping sandwiched between Sephiroth and Leon (go figure). _Insane, insane, insane. Every single one of them is insane, and I am the only one with common sense amongst ALL of them._

Even so, she didn't exactly have any other choice than to go along with the whole thing.

Sighing, Tifa headed after her crazy friends.

"Well, if you were right about Cloud sleeping naked, then where in the hell are his clothes?" Larxene wondered aloud, looking around the room.

Aerith knelt down, red-faced, and tentatively slipped her hand under Cloud's pillow. "Um… I remember from when we used to stay over at each other's houses as kids, he usually kept his things here…"

Tifa sat down and watched Aerith carefully negotiate Cloud's sleeveless zip-up jacket, heavy black jeans, and socks out from under the pillow as Larxene leaned over her shoulder, looking curious, her hands planted on her hips. _I can't believe we're actually doing this._

However, her disgruntled attitude only lasted until Aerith got the boxers at last. Then, she had to cover her mouth with both hands to keep herself from laughing.

Only once she was sure she had herself under control did she trust herself to speak. "Oh my _gawd. _Aerith, aren't those the ones you got him for Christmas during senior year in high school?"

Trying to choke back giggles, Aerith nodded vigorously, making her braid bounce. "Yep—these are the ones, all right!"

"What in the _fuck?" _Larxene asked in a normal tone, pointing. _"Chibi chocobos _on _pink _cloth? With _'My wark brings all the boys to the yard' _written across the butt? Holy hell, I'd think that no self-respecting male, gay, straight, bi, or transvestite, would be caught _dead _wearing something like this…"

"Well, it _was _supposed to be a joke…" Aerith said helplessly, shrugging.

"Oh my _gawd," _Tifa repeated, shaking her head and starting to giggle along with Aerith and Larxene. "I can't believe he even _kept _those. Wow. Just plain wow."

Aerith carefully slipped the rest of Cloud's clothes back under his pillow, and along with Tifa and Larx, retreated back up the stairs, where the three of them closed the door, headed up to the second set of stairs, and burst out laughing as loud as they dared.

Once they'd finished, Aerith turned to Larxene, pink-faced, and held out the boxers. "Um… so now what are we supposed to do with these?"

"Do?" Something in Larxene's wicked smile made Tifa start to wonder how the other girl's mind possibly worked. "Why, my dearest Aerith, I thought you'd _never _ask…"

---

"Okay, start reeling the flag down," Larxene directed. "And try to do it quietly so that nobody comes out wondering what in the hell we're doing. We can't get caught now—we've almost reached our goal."

"Isn't this a little bit harsh?" Aerith ventured timidly as Tifa started to pull the flag down.

"Naw," Larxene said offhandedly. "This kind of thing is good for him! He's been getting as bad as Leon these days—way too quiet for my taste. Hell, the more outgoing we can get the damn kid, the better it'll be for all involved. Am I right, or am I right?"

Tifa sighed. "I've got it," she announced.

Larxene held out a hand; Aerith gave her the boxers.

"See, flagpoles like these usually have a few sets of clips on the line in case the owners want to stick more than one thing up," she explained as she worked. "And the great thing about guys' boxers is, almost _all _of them have drawstring waistbands, which means these little washer-looking rivets where the string comes out. And if you yank out the string, like so—" she did with a flourish "—then these are open, just right for you to stick these clips in." Grinning evilly, Larxene tied the string around the flagpole's base and stepped back to admire her handiwork. "Okay, reel 'er up," she told Tifa, who did.

The three of them watched the cutesy pink boxers flap in the still night air for a few moments, Larxene with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Voila—instant entertainment. I can't wait to see Cloud's face when he comes upstairs, demanding to know where his underwear went. God, I'm gonna laugh _so _hard."

"You are sadistic," Tifa informed her, though she was smiling wryly all the same.

Larxene leaned over backwards, stretching, wearing a brilliant mocking grin. "What can I say? Other people's suffering makes me smile. Blame whoever made up the term schadenfreude, not me."

Aerith, still looking partially embarrassed for Cloud's sake, giggled helplessly. Tifa just shook her head and looked back up at the flagpole.

Right under the national flag, the proof of their night's mischief continued to flutter proudly in the wind.

---

NEXT: Sadly, all good things must end, and after all the mayhem of the morning, all of Sora's later arrivals start to trail off. But that won't be until the mayhem ends and the fat lady sings for all she's worth, of course.

Drabble no. 13: "The Dawning"


	13. The Dawning

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

Sora knew that the morning was going to be insane from the moment he woke up to Cloud's indignant screech of "WHERE THE HELL ARE MY BOXERS!"

And it _was _insane. His parents were back, and they'd spent their brief respite of their son and his thirty-two mad guests making everyone a breakfast of kings, so that when Sora at last meandered upstairs, almost everyone else was milling around the kitchen and family room with plates of waffles and pancakes, entirely smothered in syrup or fruit or butter or whatever they happened to like. While there, Sora noticed that all of the girls—and many of the guys, as well—were helpless with laughter, and that a very irate-looking Cloud was tramping around, holding a blanket closed around his waist.

At his first sight of the chocobo-covered pair of underwear flapping proudly on the flagpole, Sora had to duck around the corner and into the bathroom in order to stifle his _own _howls of hysteria.

Departures started as soon as breakfast ended, with Rikku's dad showing up first, ready to take her home, along with her two best friends.

"Hope you had a good time," Sora told the three of them, grinning.

Eyes shining with happiness, Yuna nodded vigorously. "Oh, thank you _so _much for inviting us," she gushed.

Sora's grin grew. "See the three of you next time, then?"

Yuna squealed and hugged him, along with Rikku. Paine just rolled her eyes at her friends, sashaying out the door with a gruff "come on".

As they pulled away, Tidus came up to stand next to Sora, waving to them.

"Worth your while to come here, huh?" Sora prodded.

Tidus shoved him in the shoulder, smiling wickedly. "You little sneak, I bet the whole thing was _your _idea, too, wasn't it?"

"Kairi's," Sora corrected. "I did more than my fair share of matchmaking for Roxas in my day."

An impatient horn went off in the driveway, causing both boys to look out the door. Jecht had his van there, and was leaning out the window with an inscrutable look on his face.

Tidus rolled his eyes, sighed, and went to collect Wakka, Selphie, and the Usual Spot group.

And so it went. Most of the Organization trailed off in twos and threes, leaving only Roxas, Axel, Xemnas, Marluxia, Larxene, and Saïx behind.

"The house finally feels like it's at a reasonable number of people again," Tifa said dryly. "Thirty-five including your parents is an awful lot, Sora."

The brown-haired boy shrugged. "We had fun though, didn't we?"

"Oh, of course," Yuffie put in where she hung upside down from the couch. "The whole thing with Cloud's boxers was so unbelievably priceless. You've really got to hand it to Larxene—she's got a mind like a steel trap when it comes to those kinds of things."

"A mind like a _rusty _trap," Tifa corrected.

"I resent that remark!" Larxene yelled from the other side of the room, where she was in the middle of winning her umpteenth match of Uno against Xemnas, Marluxia, and Saïx. Tifa made a face at her, and Sora rolled his eyes, grinning.

"You're getting to be such good friends," he told her.

In response, Tifa clouted him with the nearest pillow.

The seventeen people left were hanging out in the family room, playing video games (Riku, Axel, and Roxas were once again trying to outfox Kairi at SSBM, to no avail as of yet), watching, or playing cards. With the Organization and most of the younger partygoers gone, it certainly did seem a lot less crowded and _way _more quiet. And it was nice, hanging out with everyone like this. It was really hard for everyone to do this kind of thing at any other time of year, now that Cloud and Leon's group were in college, as was most of the Organization. Now, summer jobs and driver's ed were the only things Sora needed to schedule around.

Almost as if cued by the thought of college, Leon stood up with a grimace. "It's 11 already… I think we'd probably better go; most of us have summer papers to do, and Seph, you still haven't memorized that entire monologue yet."

"Damn college," Yuffie sulked. "Oh well, I guess we'll see you next time, then."

"Take care," Aerith said with a bow as she and Tifa followed Yuffie outside to Leon's Scion.

"Try not to lose any more boxers, 'kay, Cloud?" Sora grinned at his friend, who promptly turned red.

" 'O, villain, villain, smiling, _damned _villain! That one can smile and smile, and be a villain'," Sephiroth quoted, shoving Sora in the back of the head with an aristocratically offended air. "Stop picking on Cloud."

"But it's _fun," _Sora protested. _"You _do it all the time!"

Sephiroth smirked. "I have free license, unlike you."

After more goodbyes ensued, the six of them trooped outside. Within a matter of moments, Ansem was following them, having packed his ice cream cooler and declined everyone else's pleas for him to stay. "I really do have lab work that I'm supposed to be doing," he confessed. "I'll see you all again as soon as I can."

And just like that, they were down to ten.

Larxene and the Organization leaders were the next to leave.

"No more delaying the inevitable," Larx said grimly, sticking in her earphones. "I know better than to hope they learned their lesson last night, but still, it would be nice if they would just shut _up _once in a while."

Xemnas and Marluxia both looked chagrined, though Larxene didn't seem to notice.

"Good luck with that," Riku told her as she headed outside, trailing the guys behind her. When he and Sora headed back into the family room, the GameCube had been shut off, and Roxas, Axel, Kairi, and Namine seemed to be trying to comfort a somewhat dispirited-looking Saïx.

"Hello, what's going on here?" Sora asked, confused.

"He's depressed 'cause Xemnas is an oblivious idiot and never seems to notice how he feels," Kairi reported, squeezing Saïx's shoulder. "Poor thing."

"So get yourself invited to a threesome with them," Riku advised, nonplussed.

Saïx glared up at him. "With Little Miss Flower Girl? I think not."

Axel rolled his eyes. "Then the next time you see Xemnas alone, jump him."

"Shut up," Saïx growled, kicking Axel in the shins. "Maybe the tactics you used on Roxas don't work for _everyone, _bonehead."

_"Ouch," _Axel whined.

"You guys are so insensitive," Kairi snapped, glowering at them. "Why don't you have a little respect for Saïx's feelings for a change?"

"Saïx has feelings?" Roxas asked blankly. Namine swatted him with her sketchbook.

Sora shook his head at all of them. His friends could be so insane sometimes.

…But then again, that was why he kept inviting them over.

---

NEXT: There's only one thing that Namine loves as much as drawing, and she's just as good at it as she is with a pencil. Which means, of course, that she utterly pwns all the boys, like Kairi at video games. :3

Drabble no. 14: "With or Without Arrows"


	14. With or Without Arrows

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

There was only one thing that Namine loved as much as drawing, and that was dancing.

_"Dancing with myself… dancing with myself… when there's nothing to lose and there's nothing to prove, oh, dancing with myself…"_

Clutching Kairi's hand tightly in her own in order for them both to keep their balance, Namine let her mind go blank, her mind absorbed in the music and the patterns on the screen, her feet weaving their lightning-fast play across the Red Octane pad she stood on. Her white skirts were flying every which way, but she didn't care. The dance was much more important, and all four of the spectators were all gay males. Her panties would mean about as much as her shoes to them.

_"If I looked all over the world, and asked every boy and girl, but your empty eyes seem to pass me by, leave me dancing with myself, oh, oh… dancing with myself, dancing with myself, when there's nothing to lose and there's nothing to prove, oh, dancing with myself…"_

It was the only video game Namine ever played, and everyone who saw her dance had to admit, she was brilliant at it. Kairi wasn't nearly as good, but she still wasn't bad, and she loved to play as much as Namine did, so here they were on Namine's dance pads, clutching each other's hands tightly and just letting everything go.

They always danced this way, hand in hand, despite the attention it attracted, because it was the _only _way to really dance. Namine sometimes pitied the people who stared and made comments because of that. They would never know the exquisite beauty that came with sharing your moment to shine with someone else who meant a lot to you and understood exactly why it was the most important thing in the world.

_"If I looked all over the world, and asked every boy and girl, but your empty eyes seem to pass me by, leave me dancing with myself…"_

Kairi missed a step and giggled; Namine carried out a quick flutter of eighth beats perfectly and smiled.

_"So let's sink another drink, 'cause it'll give me time to think, and if I had the chance I'd ask the world to dance but I'll be dancing with myself, oh, oh…"_

Almost every couple Namine knew danced this way, too, holding hands and communicating their steps and thoughts and emotions through the tight twine of their fingers. Sora and Riku did it—they just had, shuffling their way around a DDR pad that neither of them was quite familiar with, both laughing as they barely made it through their chosen song. Axel and Roxas did it, too. They _would _be doing it next, once Kairi and Namine were done.

_"Dancing with myself, dancing with myself, and if I had the chance, I'd ask the world to dance… If I had the chance, I'd ask the world to dance… If I had the chance, I'd ask the world to daaaaaaance…"_

It was such a beautiful, special feeling., like you and your partner were the only things in the world. No, that wasn't right—as if you and your partner _were _the world and everything in it.

Dancing was love. Dancing was joy.

And as she landed the final slide step, Namine smiled, because while she would never be able to _draw _a feeling like that, she could always _dance _it.

As she and Kairi swept into their half-bow, half-curtsy to the screen and their audience (amidst the scattered applause of the boys), Namine continued to smile, because she knew that either way, the experience was one too valuable for her not to realize just how precious it really was.

The two girls sat down next to Riku and Sora as Axel and Roxas stepped up to take their turn, already holding hands, kicking off the shoes that they'd put on too early so that they wouldn't damage the foam of the pad while they reset the difficulty levels.

"Same song?" Axel asked Roxas, grinning.

"Why not?" the younger boy replied with a smile.

_We all dance with ourselves, all the time, _Namine wrote on the last empty page of her sketchbook. _But very few of us dance with ourselves and someone else at once._

Nodding to herself at the truth of the thought, she proceeded to draw Kairi as she had been on the dance pad, vibrant with the life of the music.

---

NEXT: The best thing about summer sleepovers is, there's always going to be a next time.

Final Drabble: "Tomorrows"


	15. Tomorrows

Overnight

See disclaimer in drabble #1

Sora sat on the steps with Kairi, staring out into the street.

It was just about noon, one day after she'd arrived and pure chaos in the form of silly friends, video games, overcrowding, blitzball and matchmaking, poker, favorite movies, a little karaoke, some damn great sex, ice cream, pillow fights, the boxer escapade, breakfast, and DDR had come chasing on her heels, and he was dead tired. He needed to get more sleep, the basement was still pretty much a wreck, and it would be a long two weeks before they all got together like this again. Sora would need that long to recover, but compared to the crazy good times they'd shared, the weeks between would feel a little bit barren.

Sure, he would be seeing everybody in ones and twos over that time, but still… he couldn't help feeling a little bit… empty for now.

Kairi poked him in the knee, propping her chin on her elbow and smiling at him. "Hey, Sora, you know what?"

"Hmm?"

"I think my favorite thing about your sleepovers is that even after it's all over, there'll always be one more."

Sora blushed a little and smiled back at her, shaking his head. "Even at the end of summer, when it's going to be over for a long time?"

"Especially then. The whole future is just one big tomorrow, you know. And as long as for one of those tomorrows, everybody will all get together again… even if everything looks and feels hopeless, or bad things are happening in our own lives… we can just keep hoping, and trust that things really are going to be okay soon."

"It's just a sleepover, Kairi," Sora stammered, blushing up to his ears.

She nodded, completely serious. "Of course. It's always the little things that make life worth living, Sora." She stood up and ruffled his spiky brown hair, breaking out into a grin. "I'll see you later today, okay?"

Sora stood up with her, giving her a one-armed hug. "Sure. Thanks, Kairi."

With a wave, she started to bounce down the sidewalk back towards her house.

Smiling and shaking his head, Sora headed back inside resolutely. At least everyone had given him something to do to fill up the in-betweens: Cleanup.

---

This story is dedicated to **Rau, **who filled my life with the true meaning of love, **Uzumaki-sama, **without whom this couldn't possibly have been written, and of course, my dear **Alexis, **known as **Thalia the Tiger** here, who is going to be facing her own tomorrows soon enough at college. I love you all and couldn't live without you. There'll always be another **chapter,** another **sleepover,** and another day to watch **episode 10** of Gundam Seed.

Thank you for everything.

More special thanks go out to:

The lovely Miss Miho Tohya, who stood behind me with a flaming whip the entire time I wrote to keep my crazy head on track. And I managed to finish it just a little behind schedule, thanks to her. I love you, Miho-chan… now just torture Piro and Largo for a while instead of me, okay?

All the fans, who gave me an unbelievable amount of reviews on this one little story. It's incredible, considering how few reviews per chapter my other stories get, how quickly the KH community got together and decided to adore my humble little fic.

The rest of my muses, especially new recruit Namine (the only one who isn't a sadist!), for the help you gave on various parts of this fic and its chapters. They're a little long for drabbles, but I am practically incapable of writing anything truly short, so I hope everyone can forgive me for that, hehe. (Completely true. You should've heard the way I wailed when my Honors English teacher told us that one of our writing assignments could only be two pages long at maximum.) Ghaleon, Karst, Llednar, Stroud, Devius, Sephy, Miho, Envy, and Namine, where would I be without you? I wuvs you all sooo much. :D

A few notes on the text…

I actually know someone who can really beat the crap out of the world with Jigglypuff in SSBM. It's very scary to watch, believe me.

I find Tidus and Yuna's relationship in FFX to be unbearably cute, and Yuna's whistle scene at the end of the game always makes me cry. A lot. Which I think says something, as I don't have the game but a DVD of all the cutscenes with voice acting… it's in Japanese and the subtitles are utter suckage, but I still fell in love with the cast.

I don't really know much about poker (which probably showed in Luxord's segment…) so if I got anything wrong please forgive me.

Pirates of the Caribbean is one of my favorite movies of all time. And yes, I do have Barbossa's little "NO!" down to an art. :D

The lyrics to Axel's song for Roxas are my invention, and they actually turned out halfway decent (it's shocking).

I would've put more detail into the sex in the eighth chapter, but then I would've ended up going overboard and this fic would be rated M, which was not the point.

I got fixated on Ansem/Leon due to Uzumaki-sama's lovely ficcie, Stygian Solace. If you like yaoi, go read it.

There actually is a kind of ice cream called Blue Moon, but I can't seem to find it anywhere these days. It's sad… I've always really liked it.

I really wanna draw Cloud in those embarrassing boxers, but it would probably get stolen by stark raving mad fangirls, so I won't.

To my knowledge, Dancing With Myself is not an available DDR song. However, it should be, so I made it one for the purposes of the fanfic.

That's about it. If you liked this, give my others in the same universe a read: They're called "Finding Mr. Right" (an AkuRoku oneshot) and "The Elsewhere Chronicles" (a story about the older guys' college life).

Thanks for your time and I hope you liked it!

Now REVIEW. Feed a starving button!


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